In 1996, a federal law named the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was issued. The purpose of this law is to standardize and regulate the way healthcare institutions and providers handle sensitive patient information.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the HIPAA Privacy Rule to incorporate the requirements of patient privacy protection.
The recent boost in using telehealth services made people question the safety of these communication channels, as well as their compliance with HIPAA. Fortunately, great progress is being made in this field to ensure patient privacy and follow the rules set by HIPAA.
This article will cover everything you must know about HIPAA, including how SlimNow MD, LLC ensures your privacy. First, let us briefly discuss the importance of HIPAA and how it benefits patients.
Why is HIPAA Important for Patients?
The primary benefits of HIPAA go back to patients. The guidelines of this law ensure that healthcare providers, health plans, and other entities are respecting your privacy and keeping your personal information secure.
In reality, no healthcare organization would deliberately expose any sensitive data of patients; however, HIPAA ensures that these institutions implement safeguards.
The good news is that SlimNow MD, LLC takes HIPAA guidelines very seriously to make sure that your information is 100% safe and protected.
Who needs to comply with HIPAA at SlimNow MD, LLC?
The regulations of HIPAA are respected by all our healthcare providers.
Here is a quick breakdown of what that entails:
Healthcare providers – the healthcare staff who work at SlimNow MD, LLC completely comply with the HIPAA Transactions Rule.
Some of these transactions may include:
- Claims
- Benefit eligibility inquiries
- Referral authorization requests
We should note that HIPAA compliance is also part of other healthcare entities, such as:
Health plans – companies that provide or pay for medical care, including health, dental, vision, and prescription drug insurers, need to comply with HIPAA. The rule also applies to health maintenance organizations (HMOs), Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare, and Medicare supplement insurers.
Business associates – any person or organization that uses or discloses health information (individually identifiable) to ensure functions, services, or activities, which may include data analysis, utilization review, billing, and claims processing.
The rights preserved by SlimNow MD, LLC
The range of information protected by our clinic is wide and includes:
- Any information put in your medical record by your doctor, nurse, or other staff members
- Private conversation with your doctor about the hCG diet
- Billing information with personal information
- Data stored in your health insurer’s computer system
Other types of information also follow the regulations of HIPAA to protect patient information and prevent leaks.
If you have any specific questions about the type of information we keep safe under the HIPAA regulations, do not hesitate to contact us.
SlimNow MD, LLC, Telemedicine, and HIPAA compliance
SlimNow MD, LLC places several safeguards to prevent disclosing patient information at any cost.
To ensure this process, we limit uses and disclosures to an absolute minimum.
Procedures to limit the number of people who can access your personal information are strictly implemented. Moreover, we organize regular training programs for our staff members to teach them the best practices for this federal regulation.
Here are some major aspects that we take into consideration when dealing with patient health information:
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Communicating ePHI at a distance
The same basic principles that HIPAA mandates for patient privacy apply to telemedicine. For this reason, we work hard to ensure that the channel of communication that conducts electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) is compliant with the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
Moreover, the element that emphasizes the compliance of telemedicine with HIPAA guidelines resides within the HIPAA Security Rule.
It states that:
- Only authorized users should be able to access ePHI
- A provider or organization must ensure the security of ePHI
- There must be a system that monitors communications containing ePHI to prevent accidental breaches
The first concept is respected by our healthcare providers by using appropriate safeguards to prevent ePHI leakage. Since the second concept states that channels of communication must be secure, we avoid any methods that may compromise patient privacy.
Finally, HIPAA guidelines on telemedicine stipulate having mechanisms to monitor communications and delete conversations when necessary. One key feature that these systems have is the ability to enforce automatic log-off, which should come in handy in case of security breaches.
Overall, SlimNow MD, LLC respects all the security guidelines dictated by HIPPA.
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HIPAA compliant telehealth
There are several options that increase the security of communication between the physician and the patients.
We ensure that all channels of communication are completely secure.
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Solutions to secure ePHI
SlimNow MD, LLC is currently using secure messaging solutions that comply with HIPAA regulations on telemedicine. These solutions offer the same convenience as SMS, email, or Skype. However, the key difference is that they comply with the Security Rule.
In other words, they ensure the following:
- Not allowing unauthorized users to access ePHI
- Implementing secure channels of communications
- Monitoring communications and safeguarding them in case of breaches
Due to the familiar interfaces of these solutions, they allow our healthcare workers to focus on the core of the matter – providing optimal, quality care.
All communications, including videos, images, and documents, become encrypted to make them unusable if parts of the communication get intercepted.
Additionally, the safeguards prevent ePHI from leakage outside the entity of a covered private network – either accidentally or maliciously.
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Secure messaging – Communicating with patients
To ensure a telemedicine consultation, we either give patients temporary access to the network or secure a temporary browser session.
Regardless, incorporating this secure messaging solution in patients’ electronic health records (HER) eliminates frequent updates.
SlimNow MD, LLC and security
Our clinic makes sure that every aspect of the services we offer is compliant with HIPAA. We want our patients to feel safe and secure while focusing on receiving the best possible medical care.
The following sections will detail some of the measures we take to guarantee the safety of your personal information:
Administrative safeguards
SlimNow MD, LLC. create and maintain updated policies and procedures for employees to learn and follow in order to maintain the security of your protected health information.
Here are a few examples of our administrative safeguards:
Acceptable use policies – the purpose of this step is to train employees on their access rights and responsibilities when it comes to handling your PHI.
Sanction policies – we regulate a set of sanctions to discipline employees who do not follow our policies.
Information access policies – grant appropriate access to computer workstations, health records, and transactions, as well as other programs.
Security awareness training – we regularly train and remind our employees of the policies and procedures related to software updates, password updates, and computer log-in monitoring.
Contingency planning – adequate preparation, policies, and procedures to respond in case of an emergency.
Technical safeguards
When it comes to technical safeguards implemented by SlimNow MD, LLC, there are several practices and procedures, as well as appropriate software and equipment to protect your PHI.
Additionally, technical policies reinforce our administrative policies by limiting access to only those who need it.
We also focus on encrypting and decrypting your personal information when backing up, restoring, or transmitting any PHI.
Finally, our technical policies mandate the destruction of all PHI when it is no longer necessary to fulfill a job.
Physical safeguards
The purpose of physical safeguards is to protect the location and devices of our practice. This aspect is less important when the clinic mainly offers its services online (e.g., telemedicine).
HIPAA compliance and online reviews
To stay compliant, companies, such as SlimNow MD, LLC, implement these measures:
- Teaching employees the importance of HIPAA compliance and the measures to protect individually identifiable information.
- Limiting the number of staff who can access patient information.
- Emphasizing the importance of careful transaction when entering patient information in their electronic medical records.
- Avoiding the use of any language that implies a specific patient visited the clinic or benefited from a telehealth consultation, even if the patient mentions it him/herself.
- Avoiding the use of specific information regardless of how many details a patient writes in his/her review.
Takeaway message
HIPAA regulations aim to protect patient information, especially during telemedicine consultations. The regulations set by this law mandates that all healthcare entities implement safeguard measures to protect patient health information.
We hope that this article managed to highlight how SlimNow MD, LLC ensures your safety and privacy when using our telemedicine services.
If you have any questions about how SlimNow MD, LLC complies with HIPAA regulations, please do not hesitate to contact us.
