HIPAA Compliance

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a strictly defined set of regulations designed to protect a patient’s privacy regarding any medical condition, test, procedure, or other personal health information (PHI). The regulations prohibit any medical practice from sharing patient information with anyone other than the patient without express written authorization. Additionally, HITECH (The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) now defines additional policies regarding electronic health records for patients.

As our industry is required by law to maintain these privacy regulations, it is the medical practice’s obligation to work with an answering service that maintains HIPAA compliance (not all answering services are medically trained and HIPAA compliant). This will provide you as well as your patients with assurance and piece of mind that you are covered in the event of any audit, review, or lawsuit.

When reviewing with your medical answering service, verify the following:

• Does the answering service send PHI via secure encryption?
• Has their personnel been trained to understand their role as a covered entity?
• Have the policies and procedures of the answering service been audited for compliance?
• What is their current status?
• What is the training schedule for new personnel on HIPAA and HITECH requirements?

Your patients deserve a medical answering service they can trust with their medical information. By ensuring your medical answering service is HIPAA compliant, you are helping your patients as well as your practice stay in compliance and maintain peace of mind.

You can feel good knowing your patient information is in good hands. At Rutherford TAS, we are committed to protecting your patient health information. We perform regular internal audits on our processes and our employees to ensure compliance with HIPAA and HITECH.

For more information, email support@rutherfordtas.com or give us a call today and ask for a 30-day free trial!