If you are in charge of a medical practice’s operations, you understand that there are certain tasks that should be completed daily. In the healthcare industry, customer interaction is key. You want patients to have a listening ear even outside office hours. Due to this, many medical practice offices are not utilizing answering services to provide their patients with some personal contact. However, before you divulge critical patient information to a medical answering service, you need to be sure that the information is still confidential.
You have to provide this as a service to your patients, but you also want to make certain that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy standards are still maintain by the service provider you contract. Here is a short snippet of how to identify HIPAA compliant medical answering services.
Screened Professionals
A HIPAA compliant service provider only employs screened professionals to work on your sensitive data. This will help prevent information leak. Ask the service provider to explain their screening process when it comes to hiring agents answering calls for healthcare providers.
A Flexible Service Provider
Ensure that the medical answering service provider is flexible enough to work with you medical practice in the development of customized policies and procedures that ensure your requirements are met.
Regular Security Assessments
Conducting regular security assessments helps ensure that your facility does not have gaps in its privacy services.
On-Going HIPAA Training
The service provider’s management team and staff should regularly receive HIPAA training. Learning about the latest practices and regulations requires active and ongoing dedication towards a training program.
A Privacy Policy
A privacy policy may mean not accepting information transmitted via unsecured data connections and email. A total overhaul of information flow will make a huge difference in the overall security of your medical practice.
Encryption of Data Transmission Channels
A HIPAA compliant service provider will offer you encryption on devices such as computer and smartphones, especially for information relating to patients. This will prevent information from leaking to hackers or an accidental computer security system breach.
A Disaster Recovery Plan
In case of a catastrophic occurrence at the call center, a pre-conceived disaster recovery plan will ensure that data pertaining to your practice and patients is secure and is easy to retrieve and restore.
HIPAA compliant medical answering services are important business partners that provide a critical service your medical practice. They handle patient communication, allowing your own staff to concentrate on providing the best patient care possible. Since a lot of patient information is flowing through the answering service, it is critical that the service provider be HIPAA compliant.
