How Can Secure Text Messaging Save Your Practice From HIPAA Violations?

Posted by Olovanderson on January 25th, 2019

Despite the fact that HIPAA compliance is mandatory, many healthcare providers choose unsecured methods for transmission of text messages and emails. Any violation of HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act not only puts patient data at risk but also makes your practice liable for severe penalties. To avoid them, embrace technology and use secure text messaging in your answering services.

How Can You Manage PHI Using Secure Text Messaging?

As a healthcare provider, you must know that standard text messaging on mobile phones is not compliant with HIPAA regulations. Hence, you must move on to the painless process of secure messaging with the help of latest technologies.

Use a Secure Messaging App:

If you want to stay on top of customer services, you can use a secure messaging app. It must be an enterprise application compatible with both Apple and Android devices. This app helps in managing two-way communications for organizations where HIPAA compliance is mandatory. 

SSL Technology:

Some service providers are using the advanced Socket Layer (SSL) technology to maintain privacy and compliance in their messaging protocols. This technology uses 256-bit encryption and ensures user identification. It protects sensitive data related to patients’ health. When hiring medical telephone answering services, make sure that the provider has the desired technology infrastructure in place to provide security encryption.

How to Manage Secure Text Messaging for Your Medical Office?

Management of secure text messaging is uncomplicated and can be done via a web portal. The answering services for a medical office provide a portal through which it can change or add user settings.

In the secure text messaging, encrypted PHI (Patient Health Information) is hosted on secure servers. Then, cell phones access this data via a secure application. This solution works efficiently for medical practices having BYOD policies in place.

Sending and receiving messages is easier on this platform. As such, they have a high adoption rate among healthcare organizations. In the perfect world, medical telephone answering services must be equipped with proper technology and well-trained staff to ensure the same.

How Can You Manage Encrypted Email Services?

The standard emails used by medical offices are not compliant with HIPAA. These emails can be highly vulnerable at any point if they are not encrypted. In this regard, using encrypted email services not only protects the sensitive content but also manages the privacy of users passing on the information.

In order to ensure complete protection for email communications, you should choose a company that applies encryption technologies to their message delivery systems. The company encodes emails in a way that they can’t be read by unauthorized parties or hackers.

Technologies Used for Email Encryption:

When it comes to encryption of emails, there are two popular methods used by answering services for a medical office. They are:

Transport Layer Security Transcription Protocol (TLS):

This protocol protects the emails during transit from hackers and eavesdroppers. Since the emails are encrypted, they are securely delivered. However, this system works only if both sender and recipient use email services supported by TLS protocol.

Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (SMIME):

As a method for sending secure emails, this protocol encrypts the messages and digitally signs them for additional security. With this technology, receivers are assured that messages in their inbox are exactly the same as sent by the sender. Additionally, the medical answering service must provide cryptographic security in the form of digital signatures and authentication.

Apart from security of emails and text messages, you must use a secure web portal. Ideally, choose an answering service that ticks the right boxes to avoid HIPAA violations.