Running a medical practice can be exhausting, and it’s not uncommon for therapists and other medical professionals to enlist the help of third-party service providers. Phone answering is one of the most commonly outsourced services — trained virtual receptionists ensure every call is answered and every appointment is scheduled.
Finding the right help is tricky enough, but the medical community has to make sure that their vendors also maintain HIPAA compliance at all times.
Like you, these third-party providers are expected to carefully handle health information. They’re bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), but you can’t assume all providers are familiar with the rules and regulations.
Today, we’re going to share some of the most important things therapists and other medical professionals need to keep in mind when choosing a phone answering service. When you’re ready to utilize phone answering in your own practice, keep this list handy.
At Intelligent Office, we have a number of doctors, therapists, medical practices, and counselors who use our services. Our virtual receptionists are specifically trained on HIPAA compliance and our teams are deeply familiar with HIPAA requirements.
This isn’t the case with every phone answering service, however.
As a medical provider, you’ll be most concerned about protecting the privacy of clients when checking people in and when accepting private and sensitive information. These scenarios include:
It isn’t an exhaustive list, so think about additional scenarios your practice might encounter. Be sure to ask about them when vetting phone answering providers.
PHI is defined as any individually identifiable health information. It could be in any form or medium, including paper, electronic, and even oral.
PHI includes:
As you can see, it’s a long list! When choosing a phone answering service for your practice, it’s important to select a company that understands the breadth and depth of what constitutes PHI.
Once you’ve determined that an answering service understands your practice’s needs, it’s time to get a bit more detailed. The way a provider uses and stores PHI is the most important detail to consider.
HIPAA guidelines state that all electronic transmissions of PHI must be secure. Typically, that means utilizing encryption and password protection. If a phone answering service shares patient appointment information with you over a standard email message, for example, they are not HIPAA compliant.
If a third-party provider has a secure, password-protected portal that only you can access, and PHI is shared there, that’s a great sign for compliance. This is how we do it at Intelligent Office.
HIPAA compliance isn’t only about technical safeguards. You must also consider physical safeguards and administrative safeguards. This Official HIPAA Compliance Checklist from the HIPAA journal is a great resource that you can use to double-check an answering service’s compliance.
All Intelligent Office locations understand that HIPAA compliance is a vital component of a thriving medical business, and we invite you to vet our service against the competition.
If you’re ready to learn more, simply click here to get started.