Every Aspect of HIPAA Compliance that Your Call Centers Must Know to Ensure Complete Compliance

Do you utilize a VOIP cloud telephony system in your medical care institution to connect with patients, receive calls, or forward calls? On the other hand, does your call center serve the healthcare industry? HIPAA understanding is essential for you in any of these two situations mentioned above. So, Medical BPO companies or healthcare providers should be fully aware of HIPAA.

For your contact center or healthcare call center outsourcing, we have outlined a brief on everything you need to know about HIPAA compliance in this blog.

Describe HIPAA.

The United States passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996. It provides data security and privacy for the secure storage of medical data. This law was created as a result of several health data breaches caused by ransomware and cyberattacks on insurers and healthcare providers.

So, what exactly is HIPAA used for?

The HIPAA law aids in protecting patient medical records and other sensitive data.

• Patients are given more control over their health information while protecting their privacy.
• If someone violates a patient’s right to privacy, it holds them accountable with civil and criminal penalties.
• It establishes limitations on how health records can be used and shared.
• Creates security measures for the private management of health information.

Which businesses must adhere to HIPAA regulations?

All employees who handle your data must be HIPAA compliant if you are a healthcare provider, clearinghouse, or health plan with a U.S. location. It also applies to your medical call centers or contact centers, wherever they may be located or operating by medical BPO companies or healthcare outsourcing partners.

It implies that if you outsource your call center services offshore, onshore, or nearshore, the medical BPO companies must comply with HIPAA regulations. Vigilant businesses take one step further and make sure that all healthcare call center outsourcing or BPO providers are also HIPAA compliant. It includes making sure the BPO employs a vendor of call center software that complies with HIPAA, and medical BPM service providers include technologies and software applications bundled in their offerings.

Patient phone calls and HIPAA

HIPAA alters how you take client calls, handle personal data, and transmit vital information. All customer information must be encrypted and secured in your call center operation and every person and process associated with it.

Outbound calls and HIPAA

The FCC’s decision makes it clear whether a patient gives a healthcare professional their phone number.
If the provider calls are made for the following reasons, it can be assumed that explicit consent has been given:

• Treatment provision
• a physical examination
• Scheduling and notifications
• tests results
• Instructions before surgery
• Calls and followup made after discharge
• Information on prescriptions
• Instructions for care at home
• Pre-registration guidelines for hospitals
• When making outbound calls and sending texts, there are additional things to check to see whether you have prior authorization.
• Your call center representative should give the consumer their name and contact information.
• Every call needs to be brief and straightforward.
• One hundred sixty characters is the maximum length for text messages.
• Call centers are only permitted to contact patients two to three times each week.
• Only one text message can be sent per day.
• The client cannot be charged for calls or text messages.
• Plan limits must be followed for calls and texts.
• Give patients a toll-free number to call back if you leave messages on answering machines.

Medical BPO companies and BPM service providers must be aware of these rules and ensure these are strictly followed by contact center staff.

Automated calls and HIPAA

To use an auto-dialer to place outbound calls to the patient, you will need to obtain written consent from them, according to HIPAA.

caller verification and HIPAA

When disclosing patient information over the phone, healthcare practitioners are required to use the utmost caution under HIPAA. If someone is calling from the other end, we need to verify that they are really a patient. Any requests for information to be sent to a person other than the patient should be made in writing on official letterhead. Experienced medical BPO companies know how to protect the interests of both the patients and your business and maintain compliance with rules and policies.

Call recordings and HIPAA.

Most companies use a hosted VoIP system to record calls. All patient voice recordings are considered PHI, or Protected Health Information, under HIPAA and must be protected. Calls should not be recorded if the patient does not provide permission. We advise selecting a contact center or telephony system that does not automatically record calls but allows you to turn them off if necessary. Compliance with HIPAA and GDPR will benefit from this.

SMS and HIPAA

Patients can still receive SMS reminders from doctors and pharmacies regarding appointments or prescription refills. The “minimum necessary standards” are texts that can be used.

How do you can manage a call center that complies with HIPAA?

All of the aforementioned rules must be kept in mind while handling patient contacts by organizations that need to operate HIPAA-compliant call centers or medical BPO companies. We advise using a cloud-based contact center technologies or software solution that is HIPAA compliant and doesn’t need additional tweaking or infrastructure like servers, hardware, or specialized software. It can be put into place in less than a day and is prepared to offer secure messaging and calling services faster. Moreover, most of these tools are easy to scale. Also, implement a quality management system to monitor if your agents are strictly following policies and regulations, like HIPAA.

Caller verification and HIPAA

HIPAA has provided various guidelines for this purpose, including:

Ask for the patient’s entire name and at least two other identifying details, such as their address, phone number, and/or date of birth.
If you have any billing concerns, ask for the patient’s most recent date of service or invoice number.
Call the patient again at their approved number if there is still any uncertainty.

SMS and HIPAA

Businesses and medical BPO companies must adhere to the following technical precautions:

• There must be no identifiable information in the text.
• Only authorized users should have access to patient health information.
• Ensure that your SMS-sending software can only be accessed through a secure login.
• So that it cannot be used if intercepted, data transfer should be encrypted.

A call center that complies with HIPAA

The HIPAA call center criteria are outlined here:

• Make sure data is encrypted:

Encrypt all your saved data to make it unreadable if it is intercepted via a public Wi-Fi network or if the device or mobile phone is lost.

• Using a PIN lock to secure:

Administrators should use PIN locks to secure their devices.

• Log-out automation

Users should be forced to log off from the system after a certain amount of time when they are not using it.

Additionally, watch out for these two things:

• Ensure that data cannot be transferred from one external network to another external device and pasted there.
• Make sure your messaging solutions are secure and only allow authorized workers access.
  Call recording should be completely voluntary and secure.

To ensure permission and caller verification, agents should get additional training and constant monitoring to ensure compliance.

Conclusion

Businesses and medical BPO companies can also expect to save money and grow their business by following HIPAA regulations while protecting customers’ information and providing secure customer service to patients and healthcare consumers. Moreover, HIPAA-compliant call centers find it simpler to streamline their operations, scale quickly as the need arises, and provide customers with better service.

Complying with HIPAA gives your company an advantage over the competition since customers and potential customers see HIPAA-compliant data as more secure and feel safe with your business. Additionally, preventing data breaches enables you to provide your healthcare consumers with superior service and excellent patient experience.