As a healthcare professional, staying within HIPPA guidelines on all aspects of patient communication and record keeping is critical. Unfortunately, many of the phone call answering services are not HIPPA compliant medical answering service providers, and this can cause significant issues for a doctor, therapist, dentist or other medical professional.
Your Liability
As a medical professional, it is your responsibility to ensure that all of your associates, or more correctly those companies that are classified as HIPPA Business Associates, are fully in compliance with all HIPPA requirements.
Failure to do so, including verifying you are using a HIPPA compliant medical answering service, can put your office, clinic or facility at risk for sanctions and fines. With fines up to $50,000 or more staying within compliances with all business associates should certainly be a priority.
The Human Factor
When using an answering service employing staff to answer phones, there is always a concern that while the call center managers may understand HIPPA compliance issues, the actual staff interacting with your patients may not.
Simple things like jotting down personal information on notes and then failing to dispose of those notes correctly can be a source of problems. Talking to other staff at the call center or someone outside of the center can create a much bigger issue.
The Automated or Virtual Phone Advantage
When choosing a virtual HIPPA compliant medical answering service, there is no need to worry about training for staff, third-party provider compliance, or even with notes that may become problematic.
With a virtual system, the patient records a message for the doctor or the medical or mental health provider, which can be retrieved through the system only by those with access. For emergency calls, that person will be the doctor on call, while for general calls it will include the reception staff that is already trained in HIPPA compliance.
By avoiding a third-party live operator provider, ensuring a HIPPA compliant medical answering service is relatively simple. Look for an established virtual phone service provider with top ratings from other medical professionals.
Also, remember to verify that the virtual phone service will be a HIPPA compliant medical answering service both with current standards as well as any changes in the system that may be implemented in the future.
At No More Phone Tag, we provide a fully HIPPA compliant medical answering service that is available for one low monthly flat rate.
