HIPAA ? How Offshore Medical Billing Companies Handle?

Posted by Ecareindia on March 22nd, 2014

In the past year, the US healthcare space has witnessed great changes like in the HIPAA rule, 5010 format adoption, ICD-10 implementation and more. Without the support offered by offshore medical billing companies, facing these revolutionary medical reforms would be quite burdensome for US Healthcare entities. While many choose to outsource medical billing, some healthcare entities are hesitant in doing so. The reason is that they are highly concerned about the protection of patient data. Healthcare entities need not worry too much, as most offshore medical billing companies have taken extreme measures to safeguard patient information by adopting the new HIPAA guidelines. Let us have a look at what measures they take to protect their clients’ patient data:

Securing Patient Data: Today, we see that most offshore medical billing companies take great security measures to protect their clients’ patient data. Building an impenetrable firewall, using secure FTP for document transfer and encrypting emails before sending are some features that are expected from a good offshore medical claims processing company.

Confidentiality Agreement: Publishing or disclosing patients’ confidential information is restricted in offshore medical billing companies by making the employees sign a non-disclosure agreement and HIPAA compliance document. Healthcare entities can therefore outsource medical billingwithout any hesitation as violating the agreement will lead to the termination of the concerned employee and legal action.

Securing Entry Access: Many reputed offshore medical billing companies are now providing top-notch security to their premises and work floor. Some security measures include providing access cards and biometric access to employees, which restricts unauthorized intrusion by strangers. Healthcare entities can choose offshore medical billing companies that offer such secured entry access to keep their patient information highly protected.

Securing System access: Providing restricted access to the server and internet/email only to the authorized personnel working on that project is the best way to secure data systems. All web-based emails should be blocked and sending official emails restricted to authorized safe-lists should be implemented. The systems must also have auto screen lock feature. Cell phone access is restricted to only the Management and that too phones without camera or internet data features. Also, offshore medical billing companies should provide unique logins and passwords to their employees to avoid security breech.

Safe Disposal of PHI: To ensure safety, paper documents containing confidential patient information are shredded before they are disposed. Renowned offshore medical billing companies employ high-end paper shredding machines to do this task effortlessly.

Establishing Secured Connection: Before any data could be exchanged between offshore vendors and healthcare entities, secured VPN tunnels are established for safe data transmission. Use of secured FTP sites is also important.

Offshore medical billing companies that are mere mom & pop shops cannot offer such security to PHI. Healthcare entities must perform a thorough due-diligence before selecting their offshore partner.

If you are looking for one such reputed company, then e-care would be the best bet as it is both ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 27001:2013 certified.

About e-care India:

e-care India promises the above mentioned benefits with total customer satisfaction. With 14 years of experience in the industry, e-care’s 3 offshore medical billing delivery centers have been providing end-to-end medical claims processing services seamlessly to its clients. To know more about e-care and its services, log on to www.ecareindia.com.