A Better Answer Blog

If your medical office is in search of an answering service, you’re probably looking for a company who is responsive and who will establish trust with your patients. But did you know that HIPAA compliance is important as well?

What is HIPAA?

HIPAA is defined as the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The primary goal of the law is to make it easier for people to keep health insurance, protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information and help the healthcare industry control administrative costs. The law allows people to keep insurance between jobs, without a lapse in coverage. Source: http://health.state.tn.us/hipaa/)

As a medical office, you’re undoubtedly well aware of this law. However take note of this important part when deciding on an answering service: protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information.

Patient Trust

As a physician or medical office, it is up to you to maintain patient trust and the HIPAA law helps guarantee that. You are entrusted with very private and personal information on each of your patients. The staff in your office understands this and has been highly trained to maintain the regulations of your industry.

If you outsource your calls to an answering service, however, they may or may not have the same training or regulations in mind. They too are being entrusted with personal health information during every call that they accept for you. They too are storing and transmitting this information via electronic means. Because of this, they too have to follow the same HIPAA regulations, or you could be subjected to penalties, criminal charges and fines.

Is my answering service compliant?

Have you asked them? Your answering service should readily know the answers to these questions:

• Ask to speak to their HIPAA compliancy officer.
• What date was their last documented HIPAA training?
• How often do they train their operators?
• What protocols do they follow to store, transmit, and destroy messages?

Be selective when hiring an answering service for your medical office. Understand what you need to look for and how important it is for you to maintain the regulations of your industry. Most importantly, know that anyone else who handles your patient data should follow those same rules.