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HIPAA Ruling Regarding Correspondence Through Text Messages and Emails: Is Your Organization Compliant?
Learn about the latest information from the head of the HHS Office for Civil Rights about how texting can be used for patient communications in the same ways e-mail can.
Find out the ways that patients want to use their e-mail and texting to communicate with providers, and the ways providers want to use e-mail and texting to enable better patient care.
Learn what are the risks of using e-mail and texting, what can go wrong, and what can result when it does.
Find out about HIPAA requirements for access and patient preferences, as well as the requirements to protect PHI.
Learn how to use an information security management process to evaluate risks and make decisions about how best to protect PHI and meet patient needs and desires.
Find out about limitations on the use of messages and calls to cell phones under The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
Discover how The Joint Commission decided to allow and then withdraw allowing the use of texting for physician orders.
Find out what policies and procedures you should have in place for dealing with e-mail and texting, as well as any new technology.
Learn about the training and education that must take place to ensure your staff uses e-mail and texting properly and does not risk exposure of PHI.
Find out the steps that must be followed in the event of a breach of PHI.
Overview of the webinar
As HIPAA requirements for allowing patients electronic access to their health information are now in effect, and as patients increasingly come to depend on electronic communications, there are new demands for communication via e-mail and texting. How can HIPAA requirements for privacy and security be reconciled with patient requests for information provided by e-mail and text messages? This session will discuss the differences between professional communications and patient communications, and how they must be treated to best serve patients, most efficiently enable communications, and remain within the bounds of HIPAA compliance. The session will explain how to discuss communications options with individuals so that you can best meet their needs and desires, while preserving their rights under the rules. The 2016 guidance on individual access of information will be discussed in detail.
In addition to HIPAA, the Telecommunications Protection Act (TCPA) limits the use of cell phones for payment and healthcare purposes unless consent is obtained. Communicating with patients’ cell phones via texting or voice for purposes of payment and even for providing healthcare information requires consent, and using texting for official purposes still remains out of bounds for physician orders.
In order to integrate the use of e-mail and texting into patient communications, it is essential to perform the proper steps in an information security compliance process to evaluate and address the risks of using the technology. There has long been a HIPAA requirement for covered entities to do their best to meet the requests of their patients for particular modes of communication, and using e-mail or texting is no exception.
The session will discuss the requirements, the risks, and the issues of the increasing use of e-mail and texting for patient and provider communications and discuss how to be prepared for the eventuality that there is a breach, so that compliance can be assured.
Who should attend?
Compliance Manager
HIPAA Privacy Officer
HIPAA Security Officer
CEO
Office Manager
HR Director
Privacy Officer
CIO
Records Release Manager
HIM Manager
Counsel
Why should you attend?
The use of texting and e-mail, and Patients’ access of their health information, are two of the most current issues in HIPAA compliance and enforcement. Providing appropriate access is one of the cornerstones of HIPAA and has been identified as an area of serious non-compliance that has been targeted in the most recent round of HIPAA Audits. Proper evaluation and management of risks is also on the hot list for audits and enforcement, and that includes considering communications appropriately both with patients, and for business purposes that may or may not contain Protected Health Information. Extensive guidance from HHS about individual access of information makes clear many areas of the access rules must be reviewed for compliance, and the use of insecure texting involving PHI between professionals has been called out as improper by HHS and The Joint Commission.
Violations are subject to enforcement that can include fines up to $50,000 per day and more, and years-long corrective action plans that can cost many times the financial settlement with HHS. Any improper exposure of PHI against the rules may result in an official breach that must be reported to the individual and to the US Department of Health and Human Services, at great cost and with the potential to bring fines and enforcement actions. Likewise, complaints by a patient if they are not afforded the access they desire can bring about HHS inquiries and enforcement actions.
Now is the time to ensure your organization is in compliance with the regulations and meeting the e-mail and texting communication needs and desires of its providers, staff, and patients.
Faculty - Mr.Jim Sheldon-Dean
Jim Sheldon-Dean is the founder and director of compliance services at Lewis Creek Systems, LLC, a Vermont-based consulting firm founded in 1982, providing information privacy and security regulatory compliance services to a wide variety of health care entities. He is a frequent speaker regarding HIPAA, including speaking engagements at numerous regional and national healthcare association conferences and conventions and the annual NIST/OCR HIPAA Security Conference. Sheldon-Dean has more than 16 years of experience specializing in HIPAA compliance, more than 34 years of experience in policy analysis and implementation, business process analysis, information systems and software development, and 8 years of experience doing hands-on medical work as a Vermont certified volunteer emergency medical technician. Sheldon-Dean received his B.S. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Vermont and his master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.