Are You Unknowingly Violating HIPAA In Your Office Practice?

Posted by Donna Craig in Jan, 2015

Using electronic media to communicate with others is a fact of life.  But when health care providers send emails to patients, they may be in violation of HIPAA.  To protect patients’ protected health information and avoid being the subject of  HIPAA complaints consider the following:

•  Does your Notice of Privacy Practices allow for protected health information being transmitted to patients by email?
• Have patients agreed to receive emails from your office practice?
• When communicating with patients use the emails provided by patients, confirming the emails are not shared emails with spouses or are family email accounts.
• How are you ensuring emails are only accessible by patients they are intended for?
• Be aware that email addresses may be incorrectly typed into your contacts file.
• What is your office’s email policy? Who in the office has access to incoming and outgoing emails? Who is to be contacted if a security incident or breach occurs?
• Do not email patients through an unsecured home computer.

 The best question to ask before sending an email to a patient is: “Could the information be conveyed by a telephone call or letter to a patient?  In fact, that may be the first and most important question to ask.  Since violation of HIPAA can result in sizeable monetary sanctions, a review of your current office practices by The Health Law Center, PLC could be to your advantage.  Contact us today to discuss your situation and learn how we can help!