Are you texting patients - Make sure to stay on the right side of HIPAA regulations

1. Are you texting patients? Make sure to stay on the right side of HIPAA regulations! Texting is more than just a fast, convenient, and even fun way to keep up with friends and family. It is emerging as a new standard in health care communication. Many new ophthalmology proactive management software tools and optometry practice management software systems include texting tools that allow you to easily and quickly communicate with your patients. While texting with your patients can be a great way to remind them of appointments, send driving directions, and more, any texting initiated by a healthcare provider needs to be done with extreme caution to avoid running afoul of HIPAA privacy guidelines. This blog explores HIPAA rules and how they pertain to texting so you can communicate with your patients with confidence. What Is HIPAA? First of all, let’s take a moment to review what HIPAA is and why it matters to your optometry practice or ophthalmology practice. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Passed by the United States Congress, HIPAA is federal legislation that provides data privacy and security provision that is meant to safeguard a patient’s medical information. The law has become prominent in recent years due to the rise in various commutation tools and a slate of high- profile data breaches caused by cyber-attacks and ransomware attacks on health care providers and health insurers. HIPAA has two main purposes – to ensure that workers who change jobs or lose their jobs can enjoy continuous health insurance coverage and to reduce the cost of healthcare by creating a standard framework that will guide how data and financial transactions are handled electronically. Other intended benefits included combating abuse, confronting fraud and waste, and improving access to long term care services and health insurance. HIPAA’s privacy rule, also known as the HIPAA Standards for Privacy, is the rule that we are most interested in here. The rule establishes the first national standards in the United States – and some of the first in the world – meant to protect patients’ personal or protected health information (PHI).

2. The rule sought to protect the privacy of patients by requiring health care providers to follow guidelines that would limit the accidental disclosure of personal health information and while notifying patients of when their personal health information was being handled. The privacy rule also guaranteed that patients had the right to receive their own personal health information upon request. What are the benefits of texting patients? Now that we know more about HIPAA, fast forward to 2022. Texting has become perhaps the most widespread form of personal communication and is quickly growing as the communication medium of choice when it comes to communication between patients and their health care providers, including eye care providers. Why is texting so popular? Well, the answer is easy to understand. With texting, you get instant delivery, high open rates, high reply to rates, the ability to automate and the ability to schedule messages, and a degree of personalization. Many leading practice management tools, such as those from Eye Care Leaders, include texting as a prominent feature. When paired with other practice management tools, texting can improve customer relationship management, has a higher success rate in getting messages read, streamlines communication management, and can increase automation and notifications. On top of that, it is convenient, and patients love it. How do I make my text messages HIPAA compliant? How to be HIPAA compliant is a major consideration when you are contemplating launching a text messaging service. HIPAA complaint texts can streamline your communication and increase patient engagement and satisfaction. But violation of HIPAA rules can be serious – the minimum fine for willful violations is $50,000, with criminal penalties by an individual possibly reaching a quarter of a million dollars, and that is not counting any restitution that may be ordered. Indeed, HIPAA violation consequences can be heavy. That said, it is certainly possible to initiate and maintain HIPAA-compliant texting, especially if your texting is run through a high-quality practice management system like that from Eye Care Leaders. Here are five key rules you should follow before you start a texting campaign:

3. 1. Establish procedures and policies that manage who has the proper authorization to access personal health information when texting. That person must have a unique user ID, there have to be emergency access procedures in place in case something goes wrong, and you need to ensure there is automatic logoff and message encryption – to features Eye Care Leaders includes in all of its packages. 2. Establish audit and reporting controls for HIPAA- compliant texting. This means that providers can analyze, identify, and mitigate any risks that may arise during texting. 3. Ensure that personal health information is not changed or destroyed during the texting. Maintaining correct health information is important and clearly specified in HIPAA regulations. 4. Provide proof of identity before sending or receiving any messages. In other words, the person getting the personal health information must be who they say they are. This can be accomplished with a password or pin, a key or token, or a biometric identifier like a fingerprint, voice pattern, or facial recognition. 5. You must guard against unauthorized access to the personal health information during transmission. The data must be protected, and the message encrypted during transmission. Again, any high-quality practice management solution will include these features automatically. Make sure your texting campaign fully complies with HIPAA rules As you can clearly see, texting your patients can have huge benefits – you get sky-high open rates, immediate delivery, and high engagement. If you looking to confirm appointments, send directors, or send post-care messages such as requests for a review, texting is the way to go. That said, texting has to be approached carefully. HIPAA rules are no joke, and if you run afoul of any of the legislation’s many intricate rules you and your practice could be looking at massive fines, not to mention plenty of bad press.

4. To learn more about initiating a text messaging component at your practice that is fully compliant, contact Eye Care Leaders today, who can connect you to an eye care practice management system that will work for you.