Laureen shows you her proprietary “Bubbling and Highlighting Technique”
Download your Free copy of my "Medical Coding From Home Ebook" at the top right corner of this page
Track an exam, sign up for HEALTHCON sessions, and renew your membership with this easy-to-use mobile app. Did you know that AAPC makes it incredibly easy to access membership-related information such as your membership renewal date, if you have enough continuing education units (CEUs), or whether you have signed up for any webinars lately? Effortlessly […]
The post My AAPC Brings Membership to Your Phone appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
Make sure your practice’s billing for communication technology-based services is compliant before the OIG comes calling. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made many policy changes that allowed Medicare beneficiaries to access a wider range of telehealth services without having to travel to a healthcare facility. This […]
The post Is It an Audio-Only Phone Call or a Virtual Check-in? appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
Thank You!
HIPAA Q&A
BAAs, fax logs, and cell phone use
by Mary D. Brandt, MBA, RHIA, CHE, CHPS
Q: Are we required to have a business associate agreement (BAA) with an overseas vendor? We may begin working with a billing company based in India. I don’t believe HIPAA would apply to an overseas company but I’m not clear on our responsibilities in this situation.
A: As a covered entity under HIPAA, your organization is required to have BAAs with all vendors who have access to your PHI to perform a service on your behalf. This includes companies outside the U.S., like the billing company in India.
Q: Are we required to keep a log of all faxes sent that contain PHI?
A: There is no requirement to log all fax transmissions of PHI, but your staff must take steps to protect the information transmitted. Appropriate steps include using a cover sheet with a confidentiality statement, using pre-programmed fax numbers for frequent recipients, carefully checking numbers manually entered before transmission, and placing fax machines in secure locations.
Q: I recently took a position with a home health agency. The agency does not provide staff with company-owned cell phones to use to communicate with patients. Staff must use their personal cell phones and frequently receive voicemails and text messages from patients. Nurses are provided with laptops and all staff have a company email address and are encouraged to inform patients that if they must contact them after hours they should do so via email except in cases of emergency. However, most patients prefer to attempt to call.
I believe having staff use their personal cell phones for work is an unnecessary risk and I would like to find a solution. Are we required to inform patients that our staff do not have company-owned cell phones and they should be careful what information they leave in a voicemail or text message? Would it be best to instead ask patients to call our main number with questions and their doctor’s office in emergencies?
A: Requiring staff to use their personal cell phones for patient communications is a concern. It is intrusive for staff members to receive calls from patients even when they are not on duty, and patients may communicate sensitive information on unsecured devices. A better solution, as you suggested, would be to ask patients to call the agency’s main number for questions and their doctor’s office in emergencies. Using the agency’s number would allow questions to be directed to the staff member currently assigned to the patient.
Q: We recently received a request for a patient’s records. The patient transferred to another provider several years ago and we subsequently transferred all the patient’s records to the new provider. Should I direct the request to the provider the patient transferred to? I’m unsure that we should be responsible for retrieving and releasing information for this patient since we transferred the patient’s entire record to the new provider.
A: If you sent a copy of the patient’s records to the new provider and still have the original records, it would be appropriate for you to respond to the request. If you transferred all records to the new provider and no longer have the patient’s information, refer the request to the new provider.
Editor’s note: Brandt is a healthcare consultant specializing in healthcare regulatory compliance and operations improvement. She is also an advisory board member for BOH. This information does not constitute legal advice. Consult legal counsel for answers to specific privacy and security questions. Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not represent HCPro or ACDIS. Email your HIPAA questions to Associate Editor Nicole Votta at [email protected].
You probably clean your bathroom every week and your kitchen counters usually get a wipedown every day. Even your oven gets a once-over every so often. But what about your cell phone?
We spend hours and hours on our smartphones and tablets every day without thinking about all the germs that are on those devices. And what we touch gets transferred to those screens—and how! Smartphones are particularly dirty: Over 90 percent of them had bacteria present, and 1 in 6 tested positive for the presence of fecal matter (that’s poop).
Fortunately, smart devices are small and easy to take care of so keep your smartphone as clean as possible; that will minimize the germs that you transfer in the first place.
The reason I am even sharing this thought is because one of our billers here at Capture Billing got a UV cell phone cleaner for their birthday. We all lined up to have our phones cleaned. Worked great . . . I think.
Anyway, I went online to look for some info on cleaning my phone. I found this infographic that shows some easy steps you can take to keep your phone clean.
Is your cell phone germ-free or gross? How do you clean your phone? Leave me a note below.
— This post Your Phone is Super Gross – Here’s How to Clean It was written by Manny Oliverez and first appeared on Capture Billing. Capture Billing is a medical billing company helping medical practices get their insurance claims paid faster, easier and with less stress allowing doctors to focus on their patients.
