Finding the right answering service is the key. Providing 24/7 live customer service to your clients or patients while choosing not to have your employees take home a phone a night, work around-the-clock or worse having an answering machine that cannot “filter” your emergencies is a “no brainer.” Things to look for when choosing [...]
1. Job Commitment- While you may not work at one particular job for the rest of your life, we are looking for you to commit to us for long enough to have an impact on our company. Tell us how you will make a contribution to the company and how can we not live without [...]
Before you put in an application for a position, make sure you have not made any of the following common mistakes. Making these mistakes can have a negative impact on your chance of being hired. Misspellings or grammatical errors: Most Human Resources (HR) representatives like to communicate by email. When you submit your application for a [...]
Given all of the legislation and the large number of mobile devices on the market and in our businesses today, it has become difficult for physician offices and their business associates to manage all of the devices. Everything from a USB flash drive to an electronic tablet or even a camera phone has become potential [...]
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was signed into law as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment (ARRA) Act of 2009. The main focus of HITECH was to encourage the use of health information technology. Several changes were made with this legislation, including that business associates are now subject [...]
Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI) is any “individually identifiable health information maintained in electronic media or transmitted or maintained in any other form or medium”. As you can imagine, that could include everything from a patient’s name to private medical history. Basically, anything that would identify someone. Any number of pieces of EPHI could be [...]
Just like anything you want to protect, keep it in a safe location. Around your office make sure that all devices are locked in a drawer or in an office when not in use and never leave unattended. When outside of your office make sure the device is either always with the person responsible for [...]
If the electronic PHI is stored and transmitted in encrypted form, then how you would handle the security breach drastically changes. Any data can be encrypted. Encryption is a process that converts plain text into cipher text which is unreadable to any unintended entity that has accessed the file without “permission.” It works by using a mathematical [...]
Start by taking an inventory of all of the devices within your practice that are used to access and/or store EPHI. We recommend including what the device is intended for in regards to use/access to EPHI. Make sure to include the operating system the device is using. Remember your inventory will need regular updating depending on changes [...]
The guidance that started as an attempt for consumers to keep their health information private and make their insurance portable has become a large legislative issue. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996 and updated in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006! Congress realized that the advancements in technology called [...]