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Outsourcing Chronic Care Management In 2019 – Associated Benefits And Risks

Medicare has offered reimbursements to physicians for Chronic Care Management services since 2015. But still, providers are struggling with patient engagement, education, efficient processes and regulatory compliance.

CCM provider provides 20 minutes of monthly non-face-to-face care management services for beneficiaries with two or more chronic conditions. It helps in managing their conditions, risk factors, medication adherence, and coordination of care with other providers. To bill for CCM services, practices must offer

  • 24/7 access to care management services
  • a platform for direct patient-practitioner communication
  • ability to manage transitions between providers and settings

Why are hospitals outsourcing CCM services?

CCM program is a labor-intensive process. It requires

  • Recruitment and training certified staff
  • EHR systems to track care plans
  • Monitor and document monthly calls
  • Making staff available to patients 24/7
  • More office space

In order to avoid these challenges, hospitals are outsourcing CCM services.

Advantages of outsourcing CCM services

  1. New significant revenue stream – A small hospital cannot afford costly EHRs, handle staff-patient management, etc. These aspects are important for chronic care management implementation. Hence they are outsourcing CCM services. The outsourcing agencies specialize in CCM services and take a part of the profit from the practice. It generates a new significant revenue stream for practices who otherwise cannot get Medicare CCM reimbursements.
  2. Saves physician’s time and effort – Outsourcing CCM services overcome the time-intensive CCM challenge for many physicians. Many of them do not have the professional staff bandwidth to provide the continuous chronic care management services. The new CMS initiative of paying doctors for CCM services works well with outsourcing.
  3. Better patient satisfaction– The billing physician creates a specific healthcare plan for his patients. The physician then turns that plan over to the CCM vendor who is responsible for the daily or weekly contact with the patient. The CCM vendor monitors the patient’s progress and provides health coaching according to the physician’s care plan. The vendors must make sure that the patient is adhering to the plan and keep the physician posted. This allows the physician to extend his chronic care management to more patients with the required staff bandwidth.
  4. Improved patient interaction – Outsourced services can combine technology, clinical services, and analytics with minimal efforts from the physician’s end. It results in improved patient interactions between actual office visits, with no impact on their current professional staff.
  5. Increased patient enrollment – Outsourcing CCM will allow the physician to
  • increase and maximize patient enrollment in the program
  • improve patient compliance
  • provide CCM documentation requirements

    while minimizing the physician’s workload.

Risks of outsourcing CCM services

1. Risk Management – Outsourcing CCM may sound easy on the front end, but it is very hard to mitigate the risks on the back end. Medicare fraud violations cost up to $10,000 per incident and may even subject the physician to a jail term. Outsourced CCM services make the practice actively and directly responsible for multiple risk factors:

  • Is the person performing the work appropriately credentialed to work in the state (especially nursing-staffed call centers)? Has the practice taken active steps to confirm this is?
  • Are all of the services billed for on the claims actually performed? Is the practice actively performing spot checks to ensure same?
  • Is the practice periodically checking that the documentation they receive for these claims and services is actually legitimate?
  • Is patient’ privacy taken care of? It is HIPAA-compliant?
  • Is the practice provided audit logs to protect them if they are audited? How often do they receive audit logs?

Never forget that an outsourced CCM vendor is paid on the volume while you hold 100% of the risk. At a minimum, this creates misaligned incentives and requires the practice’s perpetual and diligent oversight.

2. Profit factor – CCM vendors may take from half up to two-thirds of the CCM reimbursement for complete outsourced CCM service. When the added expenses are taken out of the payment, a practice may get only $7 to $12 per patient. In addition to paying the third party, it also has the labor cost of

  • Filing the claim
  • Paying the clearinghouse and the biller
  • Collecting $8 copay.
  • At one point, there is no profit from outsourced services

3. Patient’s experience – When a practice outsources the CCM services, the CCM vendor takes care of following up with the patients. Every time a patient gets a call, the person calling for rendering CCM service is unknown to them. The patients are not happy with different people calling them up every month. The vendors will not be fully aware of the patient’s medical history resulting in an average CCM call. The patient will also not feel good about talking to random people every month. Patients become dissatisfied with the outsources CCM services and leave the network.

4. Losing continuity with patients – In outsourced CCM, the practice does not get in touch with their patients regularly. When the patient visits the hospital, the physician will have to go through the previous CCM service history. It is better for the practice to do CCM services rather than give it to a CCM vendor. It affects the practice’s patient network and results in revenue loss.

Outsourced CCM services have a  mix of advantages and risks. HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution supports outsourced CCM as well as CCM services provided directly by the practice. The risk factor associated with outsourcing CCM is minimal in HealthViewX Chronic Care Management software.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution features

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has the following features that make the process simpler,

  • Inbuilt audio, video calling and messaging features – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has inbuilt video and audio calling features. It helps in giving Chronic Care Management services to their patients. Secure messaging is also available through which the physicians and the patients can communicate.
  • Automated call log feature – After a call, care plan creation or any action related to CCM health services, the system automatically adds call logs. It reduces the physician’s manual effort is logging the call logs.
  • Preventive Care plans – HealthViewX solution supports care plans for the Chronic Care Management service for a patient. The physician can create a care plan depending on the patient’s health report. It helps in monitoring the patient’s vitals.
  • Chronic Care Management Analytics – Dashboards with intuitive charts and tables give complete analytics of the Chronic Care Management services. It provides a clear picture of the revenue perspective.
  • Consolidated Report – The physician can generate a consolidated report of the Chronic Care Management services given for a particular period. This makes it easy for the billing practitioner for getting the reimbursements.
  • HIPAA compliance – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management is HIPAA-compliant. It facilitates secure data exchange. The solution manages all patient-related documents securely.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has features that suit practices as well as CCM vendors. To know more about our Chronic Care Management solution, schedule a demo with us.

 

References

http://www.federalcharges.com/medicare-fraud-charges-penalties/

Seven Mistakes To Be Avoided In A Patient Referral Network

             Referral Networks of healthcare play a crucial role in determining the hospital’s income, patient stability, and information security. It is essential for a practice to build a strong referral network of health providers from the beginning. It requires a strong provider base to strengthen a patient referral network. Once the practice establishes a patient referral network, they have to maintain it. There are few mistakes that every practice makes and are not aware of how they lose their referrals. The following are few mistakes that can affect patient referral networks,

  1. Ignoring Patient Satisfaction – Patient satisfaction is the determining factor of a hospital’s repute. During the referral process, the patients interact with the receiving physician. So patient experience of the referral has a direct impact on the hospital’s patient referral network. In many cases, the physicians are unaware of how the referral process impacts the patient. When the receiving physician finds the referral information incomplete, the physician will make the patient repeat the diagnosis. This affects the patient’s experience. The patient will also not like to bridge the gap between the referring and the receiving physicians. When the patient is dissatisfied, he/she leaves the practice resulting in patient leakage. A Referral Management software that can easily communicate between the referring and receiving physicians will improve the patient’s experience. Surveys and feedback forms keep the practice informed of the patient’s experience. The physicians must handle patients better and make them feel good during the referral process.
  2. Partnering with bad network physicians – Having health partners with bad repute in a patient referral network is the biggest mistake. If the practice is not selective in choosing the physicians, it is bound to witness worst patient experiences. The practice should not sign any physician just because they have good credentials. Even a good physician may not meet the referral requirements. The hospital must take time to analyze the physician and study the provider’s network before signing them. Choosing good health partners is a strategic decision and should make it considering the future well-being of the practice. If the practice is looking for a long-term partnership then should find a stable health partner. In the age of technology, the practice must choose a physician who complies with the EHR/ Referral Management software used. EHR or Referral Management software compatibility issues greatly influence patient referral networks.
  3. Poor communication – Communication is everything in a referral process. It lays the foundation for patient’s experience. As a part of medical care rules, hospitals should have protocol norms for communicating with patients. The practice should train their staff and should check the same regularly. This will make sure that when the practice refers their patients out, all the essential information moves along with them.  This will give the patients better understanding of what to expect and what their responsibilities are. The practice must make sure to spend quality time with the patients for their doubts and queries. Patients expect the physicians to communicate smoothly and flawlessly. Living up to the expectations of the patients make the practice run smoothly.
  4. Neglecting measurements –  Staying aware of general patient satisfaction may not be enough. The practice must adopt more formal methods of evaluating the health of the network. The practice can get a high-level view of what’s going on through surveys, feedbacks, software etc. These tools can be used to get patient opinions, evaluate the smoothness and timeliness of transitions. It can also say how well the practice has established patient expectations around referrals and how well they’re being met. Surveys can be anything as simple as a form of feedback options integrated into the patient portal solution. The practice must make sure that the surveys cover topics like coordination, access, and quality of care along with appointment experience. Measurement at this level may require a dedicated staff member, or at the very least, making the required duties a formal part of an employee’s job description. Once the practice has a clear picture of what’s going on, it’s time to improve. The practice can use the information gained to highlight specific areas of improvement. It improves future training and protocol standards.
  5. Neglecting long-term growth – The practice should have a solid business strategy. The American Academy Of Orthopedic Surgeons proposed a ten step process. It helps doctors in having a strategic approach towards the growth of the practice. The process involves market evaluations, budget creation, strategic plans development, marketing plan, new reimbursement model preparation, etc. Business development is the backbone of a strong patient referral network. Once the practice establishes a patient referral network, they must begin adding more doctors and professionals with whom they are comfortable. This will optimize the processes and standards already in place.
  6. Careless about security breaches – One of the few downsides of a well-connected patient referral network is increased exposure to data breaches. Since 2009, 15 million patients’ Personal Health Information has been exposed. A practice should protect their patients’ valuable information. Hiring a professional to audit the practice’s internet breach can help. Audits detect unauthorized access to patient information, curb inappropriate accesses and track misuse of PHI. A practice can consider partnering with other network members. It cuts down the cost of bringing in outside consultants and solutions. The practice must keep all personnel properly trained on HIPAA guidelines.
  7. Using outdated technology – The increase in the number of referrals on a daily basis makes it very tedious and difficult for the existing process and system to manage them. The most commonly used system of referrals being fax and this method of sending / receiving referrals is time-consuming and prone to errors. Communication with the PCP’s and the patients on follow-ups and sharing of the results is a cumbersome process which impacts the overall satisfaction of the both. Considering the complexity of referral system, an effective Referral Management Software is the need of the hour.

HealthViewX Referral Management solution features

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution has features that best suit a hospitals’ Referral Management System.

  1. Seamless communication – HealthViewX solution has an audio calling and messaging features. It enables secure and faster communication among the referring physicians, receiving physicians and patients.
  2. HIPAA compliant data security – The solution is HIPAA-compliant and offers secure data exchange. It supports almost all formats of files that can b sent and received during any time of referral process. It also keeps the patient documents safe.
  3. Referral history – The timeline view provides the history and current status of the referral. A status helps in knowing how far the referral has progressed. It acts as a channel of communication between referring and receiving physicians.
  4. Data Analytics – A comprehensive dashboard helps to track the number of referrals in the queue and shows the number of referrals in different statuses. This helps in knowing how fast the referrals are getting closed.
  5. Report Consolidation – The data regarding the referrals and timeline view can be printed as a report anytime in pdf/excel form.
  6. Invariant referral process – HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution can integrate with EMR/EHR and can write data of referral into any system if required. It is almost zero deviation from the current workflow a practice is using.

            With HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution in place, physicians never make a mistake in the referral process. Managing a referral life cycle is very easy. A 30-minute demo with our team will help you know how effective our solution is in tracking and managing the referral process. To know more schedule a demo with us.

How Can An Open Patient Referral Loop Hamper Your Network?

The increasing complexity of patient referrals in healthcare

Patient referrals are increasing in number every day. Health Systems and Hospitals which send out numerous medical referrals find it difficult to track and close a patient referral loop on time. What factors prevent the referral coordinators, operations managers, physicians or care providers from closing the patients’ referral loops?

  1. Prior Authorization – The referral coordinator does the insurance pre-authorization for the patient referrals in healthcare. Considering that one out of every three patients is referred to a specialist, it is difficult to do prior authorization. This makes patient referral system time-consuming and affects referral loop closure.
  2. Finding the right specialist/imaging center – The referring provider must choose the right specialist or imaging center that will suit the patient best. He/She should send the referral to a reliable provider who will give the best care and give regular updates. The referring provider must also consider a provider who covers the patient’s insurance before initiating the referral. If the referring provider fails to do this, open patient referral loop becomes imminent.
  3. No updates on the referral progress – The receiving provider fails to update the progress of the referral. 25% to 50% of referring physicians do not know if their patients actually visit the specialist or imaging center. As many patient referrals are initiated on a daily basis, tracking it manually is difficult for the referring provider. This ultimately results in open patient referral loop.
  4. Inadequate referral information – The receiving providers usually have a tough time processing referrals with incomplete information. 70% of the specialists rate the patient referral information from the referring providers as poor. This affects the patient referral lifecycle.
  5. Outdated referral workflow – The current referral workflow is outdated. The providers find it difficult to cope up with the increasing patient referrals in healthcare. On an average, a referring provider spends half an hour to one hour per referral and even more time in following up. Outdated referral technology affects the referral loop closure.

Close a referral loop in healthcare with the HealthViewX Patient Referral System

Information Technology enables patient referral workflow automation. HealthViewX Patient Referral Management System simplifies the process and closes the referral loop on time.

  1. The Primary Care Provider (PCP) identifies the need for a referral and initiates the same through the EHR system.
  2. The referral coordination team then validates the referral and does the insurance pre-authorization with the help of HealthViewX solution.
  3. The Intelligent Provider Smart Search feature of HealthViewX Patient Referral Management System helps in finding the right specialist or imaging center easily.
  4. The referral coordination team then sends the referral with the necessary documents to the relevant specialist or imaging center through the HealthViewX platform.
  5. The receiving provider gets notified about the referral and can schedule appointments with the patient.
  6. The patient and the receiving provider get reminders of the appointments thus reducing no-show rates.
  7. The referring provider is also notified about the status of the referral and how it is progressing. HealthViewX timeline view makes tracking and managing the referral lifecycle easier.
  8. HealthViewX tracks and sends reminders to the receiving provider to update the diagnosis, treatment recommendations, care plans in the referral.
  9. HealthViewX makes it easy for the referring provider by automatically updating this information back to the EHR system.
  10. Thus the HealthViewX solution closes the referral loop on time and helps in easy monitoring of the same.

Features and Functionalities

  • Referral workflow automation reduces the time and manual effort spent on a referral. Thus HealthViewX solution improves the efficiency of the process.
  • Patient coordination framework achieved through the patient application that helps in managing appointments and log data for the care plans prescribed by the provider.
  • Automated insurance pre-authorization reduces the work of the referral coordination team and makes the process simple.
  • Intelligent Provider Search feature helps in finding the right specialist or imaging center in no time.
  • Referral timeline view and communication enables easy flow of information between the referring and the receiving ends.
  • Scheduler integration gives timely reminders and notifications to the patients and the providers about appointments, lab tests, etc.
  • Referral insights and analytics gives the PCPs concrete data of how many referrals were converted to an appointment by a specialty care or an imaging center. It will help in analyzing who responds quickly and to whom the PCP can direct future referrals.

Benefits of closing the patient referral loop in the healthcare industry

  1. Increased Medicare reimbursements –  Medicare considers closing medical referral loop as a benchmark for giving reimbursements. Closed medical referral loops increase the opportunities for Medicare reimbursements for referral marketing.
  2. Streamline referral management – With HealthViewX Patient Referral System in place, the referral workflow is automated and streamlined.
  3. Improved patient care – Reduced waiting time gives patient satisfaction thereby improving the care quality.
  4. Increased productivity – Reduced operational time improves the efficiency of the patient referral system.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management application helps in closing the referral loop and increases the revenue for the practice. To know more about HealthViewX solution, schedule a demo with us. Our patient referral management experts will guide you through our HIPAA-compliant solution.

 

HIPAA Compliant Cloud Storage

What does HIPAA stand for?

HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, sets the standard for protecting sensitive patient data. Any company that deals with protected health information (PHI) must ensure that all the required physical, network, and process security measures are in place and followed. It was formed in 1996 and, among other things, protects patient health information.

Who has to comply with HIPAA?

HIPAA applies to two groups:

  1. Covered Entities: Covered entities are defined in the HIPAA rules as  
    • Health Plans
    • Health Care Clearinghouses
    • Health Care Providers, who electronically transmit any health information in connection with transactions for which HHS has adopted standards.
  2. Business Associates: A business associate is a person or entity, other than a member of the workforce of a covered entity, who performs functions or activities on behalf of, or provides certain services to, a covered entity that involves access by the business associate to protected health information. It includes CPA, Attorney, Laboratories, IT Providers, Billing and Coding Services.

For detailed information, please visit the Health & Human Services (HHS) website.

HIPAA violations  

HIPAA violations are expensive. Based on the level of negligence, the penalty for non-compliance can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation, with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per year for violations of an identical provision. Violations can also carry criminal charges that can result in jail time.

Does HIPAA apply to Cloud Storage?

Yes, it does. When PHI is stored on behalf of the healthcare organization the cloud service becomes a business associate and thus must be HIPAA compliant. The law protects privacy, integrity, and accessibility. The Security Rule, which addresses electronic PHI, includes physical and technical safeguards such as audit controls and access controls. It also administrative safeguards such as data backups and security incident procedures.

Healthcare Industry – The Prime Target

The healthcare industry is one of the primary targets for cybercriminals. Stats reveal that a total of 113.2 million healthcare related records were stolen in 2015. Recent studies also say that healthcare has been the industry with the highest number of data breaches. And this stolen data could be  used by the cyber attackers for many fraudulent activities such as stealing identities, procuring drugs, for filing fraudulent claims, pursuing treatment using another identity, etc. and these criminals even sell the patient records for anywhere between 1-5 dollars per record and complete set of medical records for more than $1000 on the darknet. The healthcare industry attracts the security hackers because medical records are lucrative to sell and are easy to hack.

Medical identity theft is increasing at an alarming rate. But the healthcare industry still lags in terms of preparedness when comes to implementing security protocols. So far in 2017, 79 security breaches, each affecting at least 500 patients, have been reported to the U.S. Health & Human Services Department. And this hacking trend is likely to stay or even increase over the coming years. Medical records contain lots of information about the patient like their full name, address, insurance details, social security number, diagnosis details, driver’s license, credit card numbers and a lot more. This information from the medical records can be used for fraudulent billing, prescriptions, etc. By hacking these information cybercriminals make a significant amount of money. According to NBC News, complete health records are going for $60 each.

Steps to be taken by the healthcare industry to prevent data breach:

–          Plan sufficient budget for security purposes to curtail or minimize data breach

–          Choose the right technology solution to protect patient health data

–          Adopt latest technologies to mitigate data breach

–          Most of all, ensure the solution you choose is HIPAA compliant

–          HIPAA Education for employees – Make sure all employees know what personal health information can and cannot be shared with patients, caregivers and outsiders

–          Ensure IT secures the devices it issues employees

–          Get rid of the paper records once it is scanned and imported into your EHR

–          Encrypt data and also hardware

–          Take Identity and Access Management seriously, provide individual specific access to patient health records.

Cyber threats are increasing at an alarming rate. The healthcare industry is the prime pick needs to make smarter decisions to operate their business. The healthcare providers need to have a clear understanding of how industry regulations impact cloud adoption and what has to be looked into while choosing a cloud storage service provider. A cloud storage service becomes a business associate if they store Protected Health Information (PHI) on behalf of any healthcare organization. Also, cloud service providers need to sign a business associate agreement with the healthcare organization that specifies the vendor’s compliance with HIPAA requirements. As a basic step, healthcare providers should ensure that the PHI is encrypted in the cloud. And make certain that the policies, technology, and processes required are in place to eliminate risks.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a HIPAA compliant cloud service provider should have certain administrative, physical and technical safeguards to host your data. Here’s below in detail of what constitutes a HIPAA compliant data center.

Physical Protection: It includes limited facility access and control with authorized access in place. All the covered entities or companies that must be HIPAA compliant must have policies about use and access to workstations and electronic media. This includes transferring, sharing, removing and disposing of any electronic protected health information (ePHI).

Technical Protection: This requires access or control to only those who are authorized to access electronic protected health information. It includes unique user ID’s, user-specific access, emergency access procedure, automatic log off, encryption and decryption. Audit reports and tracking logs should be implemented to help track any security violation.

Technical Policies and Procedures: This should cover integrity controls and also ensure the ePHI is not altered or destroyed. It should also ensure any IT disaster recovery and offsite backup are key to ensure any electronic media errors can be resolved and patient health information can be recovered intact.

Network Security: This requires HIPAA compliant host to protect against any unauthorized public access of ePHI.

On February 17, 2009, a supplement act called The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was passed, an act which the enforcement of HIPAA requirements by raising the penalties of health organizations that violate HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. The HITECH Act addresses the privacy and security concerns associated with electronic transmission of health information.

Patient health records are full of personal information and are a prized target for cybercriminals. Hence it is essential to protect the patient data. The HealthViewX Solutions keep patient data safe and secure with HIPAA Compliant cloud storage and ensure complete security to protect sensitive data.

How Not to Share Patient Information For Referral

The medical referral process is an important part of ambulatory care in the US. Medical referrals have a direct connection to patient health outcome and the provider’s revenue flow. Patient-specific information and the need to keep it safe is even more important.
To protect patient information from falling into the wrong hands, healthcare providers use various procedures and processes to ensure maximum security but when it comes to referral workflow there are no standard procedures nor any secure technology to ensure information safety.

Gigabytes of patient records are compromised each year because providers do not have processes, the required technology or is unaware of HIPAA regulations. Here is how not to share patient information during referral.

Email Is Not What You Think It Is:

Many providers rely on emails to send and receive patient information instantly. Emails are easy and a lot faster than faxes but the problem with emails is that the files sent through with emails are generally un-encrypted when transmitted or when saved leaving patient information sensitive to theft. Using emails to share patient-related data is against HIPAA compliant and according to HIPAA, the provider is held responsible for any breach.

Beware Of Faxes:

Faxes are the most common format to send and receive patient information between practices. Regular faxes are affected by the problem of encryption; since these files are not encrypted, this information could be accessed by an individual with access to phone lines and basic knowledge of the system. Faxes are slow and time-consuming and do not support all type of file formats. Received faxes are usually kept in the machine for some time exposing patient information to unauthorized people. Faxes leave a paper trail of patient information which will practically result in making EMR/EHR systems useless.

Triplicate Form:

Although triplicate forms sound straightforward, practically triplicate forms transfer the process of referring a patient from provider to patient or patient’s skin. The patient is left with the challenge of coordinating between physician offices – calling referral coordinators, faxing files to specialists’ office. Often a patient will have to request an appointment with multiple specialists which means sending sensitive patient information to specialists office who may not be taking care of the patient at all.

Sharing patient information is crucial in the medical referral process, but the systems that the healthcare providers use are incompetent to do a fast transfer of patient file and transfer it securely to authorized providers.
Hospitals need to establish clear-cut procedures in case of sharing patient information. Such a procedure should be able to track the flow of patient data and establish standard norms and practices to minimize the possibilities of compromising data.

Accidental Violation of HIPAA Compliance

Patient information secrecy is of utmost importance for any healthcare organization and medical professionals due to the risk of being compromised, exposed or accessed. With initiatives and innovation in healthcare IT space by various federal agencies (particularly CMS) and health care providers throughout the country over the years, have embraced healthcare IT innovations to secure healthcare data.

Most providers even today use conventional processes to send and receive medical referrals which could lead to an accidental violation of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) rules which sets the standards to the use and share of patient-related information to ensure security.

In best practices, referrals are managed by referral coordinators who are in charge of sharing patient information, setting appointments and ensuring closure of the referral loop. The referral coordinator and other staff may be committing HIPAA violations in the following manner:

1. Triplicate Forms– Commonly, medical referrals are conducted using triplicate forms and it contains patient identification information. Such forms are circulated to the Specialists’ office and a copy is kept at the PCP’s office.

2. Patient Information Faxing– Hospitals and clinics relay a lot on faxing. Patient information for referrals are sent via faxes and it is not uncommon for providers to misplace such documents.

3. Use of Personal Portals and Storing Devices– For the ease of communication healthcare providers and referral coordinators repeatedly make use of their personal communication devices or portals like emails, cell phones etc.

According to HIPAA, all those above scenarios fall under the category of accidental violation of HIPAA regulations and such violators are subject to a penalty ranging from $100 dollars to $50,000 per violation depending on how the violation is categorized as.

It is not rare for providers to find themselves in these circumstances like many have in the recent past. Some due to negligence don’t comply with HIPAA regulations and on the other side of the spectrum for criminal activities involving staff misuse. Providers could take immediate actions against this issue and cut their risk in half.

a. Educating your staff on the threat to patient information, HIPAA violation and penalties involved.
b. Establishing standard procedures for staff to follow while dealing with medical referrals.
c. Likewise establishing security infrastructure to secure health data in hospital servers and cloud.

In the long run, these measures will not be enough. These methods do not have the capacity to manage large numbers of medical referrals and providers cannot divert much of their resources to maintain an IT team when there is always a shortage of helping hands.

Healthcare providers need to move away from paper triplicate forms and fax machines and embrace Referral Management Solution.

HealthViewX Referral Management Solution is a comprehensive, multi-channel solution that is secure as it is functional.