Aug 24, 2021 | Live Compliance, Partner
There are many benefits to smartphones in the healthcare industry, however, there is also huge potential for HIPAA violations of patient privacy to be violated. It’s important to know what risk is associated with smartphones and other mobile devices.
CISA, or Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, says “Mobile apps may gather information from your mobile device for legitimate purposes, but these tools may also put your privacy at risk.”
So, what are the risks associated with mobile device applications?
Apps are a convenient tool to access the news, get directions, or pick up rideshare, but these tools may also put your privacy at risk.
CISA says, when you download an app, it may ask for permission to access personal information—such as email contacts, calendar inputs, call logs, and location data—from your device. CISA goes on to say, “You should be aware that app developers will have access to this information and may share it with third parties, such as companies who develop targeted ads based on your location and interests.”
How can you avoid malicious apps and limit the information apps collect about you?
First, it’s helpful to reiterate that employee devices are for work purposes only. Therefore, applications on your workplace devices, including mobile devices must be approved by your Supervisor and must follow device guidelines set in place by your organization.
Employees must refrain from downloading, installing, and using apps such as social media platforms. Therefore, employees should refrain from posting, commenting, or sharing patient information on social media including patient names, photos, and descriptors that would identify the patient.
What steps can you take to secure data on your mobile devices?
- When using a public or unsecured wireless connection, avoid using apps and websites that require personal information and turn off Bluetooth.
- Avoid connecting your smartphone to any computer or charging station that you do not control. Charging stations are often found at transportation terminals and are not secure! Connecting a device to a computer using a USB cable can allow software running on that computer to interact with the phone.
- Do not leave your device unattended in public or in easily accessible areas.
- Ensure your device requires a password or biometric identifier to access it, so if is stolen, thieves will have limited access to its data.
If your device is stolen or misplaced, first, contact your IT administrator, supervisor, and/or designated HIPAA Security Officer immediately and notify them of the situation for immediate next steps. In general, it’s advised to, follow your organization’s Incident Response Policy immediately.
At Live Compliance, we make checking off your compliance requirements extremely simple.
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- Contact-free, accurate Security Risk Assessments are conducted remotely. All devices are thoroughly analyzed regardless of location. Conducting an accurate and thorough Security Risk Assessment is not only required but is a useful tool to expose potential vulnerabilities, including those such as Password Protection.
- Policies and Procedures are curated to fit your organization ensuring employees are updated on all Workstation Use and Security Safeguards in the office, or out. Update in real-time.
- Electronic, prepared document sending and signing to employees and business associates.
Call us at (980) 999-1585 or visit www.LiveCompliance.com.
ABOUT EZCLAIM:
As a medical billing expert, EZClaim can help the medical practice improve its revenues since it is a medical billing and scheduling software company. EZClaim provides a best-in-class product, with correspondingly exceptional service and support. Combined, EZClaim helps improve medical billing revenues. To learn more, visit EZClaim’s website, email them, or call them today at 877.650.0904.
[ Contribution from the marketing team at Live Compliance ]
Aug 19, 2021 | Partner
Designing a Superior Patient Experience
We live in a world of increasingly lofty consumer expectations—one where 44% of U.S. consumers will switch to a competitor following a poor customer service experience.
The medical industry is no exception to this trend.
In a study by PatientPop, 58 percent of Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen Xers, as well as 63 percent of individuals 55 and older, said that responsiveness to follow-up questions via email or phone outside of the appointment is critical or very important to overall satisfaction.
Patients want more than just excellent care from their healthcare providers. They expect easy access to medical records, convenient online scheduling and appointment reminders, prompt responsiveness, and painless ways to contact your office—24/7/365. And they’re also seeking compassionate and knowledgeable representatives who are willing to provide caring and accurate resolutions to their issues.
As a medical provider, you should not only focus on bringing in new patients but also continually strive to improve patient retention. Growth in customer retention rates by 5 percent can increase profitability anywhere from 25 to 95 percent, after all.
So how do you design an experience that increases patient satisfaction and retention? Let’s dive in.
1: Make Prompt Call Answering & Convenient Appointment Scheduling A Priority
As we mention above, patients want—and nowadays expect—your office to answer quickly as well as provide effective and swift resolutions to their health matters. But in a busy office, the staff is often focused on dealing with patients. Even front desk and administrative teams can become inundated with in-office tasks at a busy practice, leaving calls, messages, and emails unanswered.
A superior patient experience starts with prompt call answering and convenient appointment scheduling—a service that’s available to your patients whenever they need you, including weekends and holidays, and answers every call addresses delicate patient concerns with empathy, and schedules appointments quickly. If your staff is struggling to keep up with demand, consider outsourcing your phone answering and appointment scheduling. Not only will this improve patient satisfaction, but it also brings a sense of work-life balance to internal staff and allows you and your team to focus on what you do best; caring for patients.
2: Streamline and Perfect Your Patient Intake Process
The patient intake process is tedious, but it’s incredibly important to your operations, and speed and accuracy are vital. Streamlining and perfecting patient intake starts with leveraging the right software—one that makes it easy for patients to fill in their information and access their records, and provides all of the valuable data your practice needs to operate in an easy-to-navigate platform. For starters, your intake software should:
- Be encrypted for data transfer through the internet and HIPAA compliant
- Be intuitive and user-friendly
- Not require special software or hardware downloads or installation for the user
- Be portable into back-end systems
Your intake process should also be integrated with your electronic health records (EHR) software, and information should be updated and available in real-time for a smooth experience—for patients, admin staff, and providers—so that everyone is up-to-speed. Both technology and your process should remove redundancies from your workflow and streamline the intake experience.
3: Provide HIPAA-Compliant Live Chat & Text For Swift and Convenient Communication
Another great way to improve patient experience is via live chat and text, through which you and your staff can communicate with patients wherever they are, send appointment reminders, have two-way private and secure conversations, multitask as needed and be available when emergencies happen.
HIPAA-compliant chat and text messaging lets you communicate efficiently and accurately with patients and simultaneously safeguards electronically protected health information (PHI) while taking full advantage of the speed and flexibility of today’s communication technology.
Some of the many benefits of secure live chat and text in the healthcare realm include:
- Reduced response times, including in the off-hours and on weekends or holidays
- Ability to provide immediate recommendations for care and preliminary diagnoses
- Ability to send follow-ups, like reminding patients to take medications, which creates better relationships between you and your patients
- Secure PHI storage that acts as a record of past conversations, symptoms, or complaints to improve future care, diagnosis, and treatment plans
4: Leverage Technology and Software Integrations For Smarter Decision-Making
Technology and software integrations have transformed healthcare and are vital in any medical practice. Why? Because when you streamline your office functions and workflows, you improve all aspects of patient care and experience.
First, your office should be using an EHR (electronic health record) system. This system automates access to client information, helping to improve workflows and reduce incidences of errors by improving the accuracy and clarity of medical records. It should include all the key clinical data relevant to each patient’s care, including:
- Demographics
- Progress notes
- Problems
- Medications
- Vital signs
- Past medical history
- Immunizations
- Laboratory data
- Radiology reports
Communication data collected throughout your patients’ experience with your office—such as phone conversations, appointment scheduling, and reminders, and live chat and text transcripts—should also be sent to and recorded in your EHR system.
Finally, the right software can help you make better patient and business decisions. For instance, maybe you want to know the percentage of patient calls versus the percentage of calls from hospitals that come into your office. Or, maybe you want to know which hospitals call you the most or you want to know the main reasons patients call so you can use that information to improve patient care and education.
How The Highest-Performing Medical Practices Prioritize Patient Experience
Medical practices that provide a superior service experience are available to their patients 24/7, have a streamlined and accurate intake process, are tech-forward, and have omnichannel communication options that empower patients to reach out any time and from anywhere. But most medical practices don’t do it all on their own. The highest-performing medical providers leverage an outside service provider like Nexa to improve client satisfaction, increase retention and grow their revenue. Learn more about how Nexa can help your medical practice level up by visiting nexa.com/medical.
ABOUT EZCLAIM:
As a medical billing expert, EZClaim can help the medical practice improve its revenues since it is a medical billing and scheduling software company. EZClaim provides a best-in-class product, with correspondingly exceptional service and support. Combined, EZClaim helps improve medical billing revenues. To learn more, visit EZClaim’s website, email them, or call them today at 877.650.0904.
[ Contribution from the marketing team at Nexa ]
Jul 29, 2021 | Medical Billing Software Blog, Partner, Waystar
As patients return to doctor’s offices and health systems around the country, healthcare organizations find themselves in uncharted waters, with a greater need than ever to make data-driven decisions that grow revenue. Per a recent report from KLAS, 63% of hospitals found themselves struggling with real-time data analytics.
It should come as no surprise then that investments in new analytics tech and training are on the rise. According to a report from the Society of Actuaries (SOA), 42% of surveyed healthcare executives reported an improvement in patient satisfaction since implementing predictive analytics, while 39% said they had cut costs. Since 2011, over $39B has been invested in digital health tech, including $7.48B in 2019 alone. It’s estimated that roughly 20% of that has been funneled into the development of technology-focused on managing health records and analytics. Furthermore, some models have estimated improving available data collection and analysis tech could save the healthcare industry roughly 25% of its total costs.
The question is, what can you do to unlock that potential within your own organization? There’s a deep well of data that each revenue cycle feeds into, which if properly analyzed, can help organizations operate at their most efficient and effective. Here are the four stages of data analytics workflows that are key to developing those actionable insights.
1. A trigger, or the point in your revenue cycle that sets up the call for deeper analysis
2. Interpretation of data to determine root causes and identify appropriate next steps
3. Intervention to improve specific metrics
4. Tracking of said metrics to chart success in achieving desired outcomes
Let’s examine what a successful version of each stage looks like.
1. Trigger
The trigger occurs when you notice something that needs further investigation. With the right analytics tool, you can easily access all of your key performance indicators, financial goals, and more, providing the visibility you need into your rev cycle. When something looks amiss or needs improving, you can drill down to the level that shows what’s really going on.
2. Interpretation
Even a wealth of data amounts to nothing without an efficient way to process and communicate key takeaways. You’ll need to equip your team with access to concise reports, smart visualizations, and relevant historical data in order to get them to the insights that drive action.
3. Intervention
Now is the time to take action. Intervention is ultimately tied directly to your ability to drill down into the data underlying problematic areas of your revenue cycle and clearly communicate takeaways with your team. Success at this stage depends on designing a plan based on your best understanding of underlying issues and the most effective way to address them.
4. Tracking
Your intervention plan is built on KPIs that naturally intertwine with the way you measure success across your revenue cycle. With proper implementation and tracking, running with the analytics cycle can become a simple addition to your everyday workflow. More than delivering on your initial goals, the true power of analytics is the ability to deliver repeat value on your initial investment.
A strong analytics solution does more than deliver a more fully developed picture of your rev cycle performance. It provides actionable business intelligence, cuts down on time between analysis and action, and lessens the strain on your IT department.
Beyond the actionable internal insights it can provide, analytics is also a key tool for helping you benchmark performance in comparison to peers in the industry. And with the right analytics solution, competitive analysis is a simple task, using automation that reviews customizable benchmarks for a tailored review of the claim, payment, and denial performance.
Looking for a truly comprehensive analytics solution to help improve performance and enhance your benchmarking capabilities? Find out how Waystar can help you harness the power of your data through analytics. Visit Waystar.com
Heading to AMBA in October? Visit Waystar and EZClaim while you’re there! Stay tuned for more event details.
ABOUT EZCLAIM:
As a medical billing expert, EZClaim can help the medical practice improve its revenues since it is a medical billing and scheduling software company. EZClaim provides a best-in-class product, with correspondingly exceptional service and support. Combined, EZClaim helps improve medical billing revenues. To learn more, visit EZClaim’s website, email them, or call them today at 877.650.0904.
[ Contribution from the marketing team at WayStar ]
Jul 27, 2021 | HIPAA, Live Compliance, Partner
HIPAA Social Media Do’s and Don’ts in Healthcare
There are many benefits to social media in the healthcare industry, however, there is also huge potential for HIPAA violations of patient privacy to be violated on social media networks. The Privacy Rule protects All “individually identifiable health information” held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper or oral. The Privacy Rule calls this information “protected health information (PHI).”
Did you know that more than 71% of recorded data breaches in the healthcare industry are attributable to employee actions?
The most important rule is to never share Protected Health Information or Personally Identifiable Information on social media. Social media may include personal blogs and other websites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or others of the like.
A few common identifiers include but are not limited to:
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- demographic data
- medical histories
- test results
- insurance information
- and other information used to identify a patient or provide healthcare services or healthcare coverage.
What is a breach and what can I do to avoid it?
A breach is, generally, an impermissible use or disclosure under the Privacy Rule that compromises the security or privacy of the protected health information. This means employees should refrain from posting, commenting, or sharing patient information on social media including patient names, photos, and descriptors that would identify the patient.
What is considered identifiable information?
The most common social media HIPAA violations include:
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- Posting of images and videos of patients without written consent
- Posting of gossip about patients
- Posting of any information that could allow an individual to be identified
- Sharing of photographs or images taken inside a healthcare facility in which patients or PHI are visible
- Sharing of photos, videos, or text on social media platforms within a private group
“Friending” patients on social media websites is also strongly discouraged. This can lead to accidental identifying of patients, especially if your place of work is listed in your profile and accidental ‘discussion’ about the patient’s care. Therefore, employees in inpatient care roles generally should not initiate or accept friend requests. Do not enter into social media discussions with patients who have disclosed PHI on social media.
Employees should also refrain from messaging or texting PHI or PII on social media or messaging applications not approved by your organization. In general, no personally identifiable health information should be sent in any manner which does not ensure communication encryption in transit and at rest.
So, what do you do if you think you may have exposed a patient’s protected health information or personally identifiable information?
In general, it’s advised to, follow your organization’s Incident Response Policy immediately and notify your supervisor and/or designated HIPAA Security Officer for immediate next steps.
At Live Compliance, we make checking off your compliance requirements extremely simple.
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- Reliable and Effective Compliance
- Completely online, our role-based courses make training easy for remote or in-office employees.
- Contact-free, accurate Security Risk Assessments are conducted remotely. All devices are thoroughly analyzed regardless of location. Conducting an accurate and thorough Security Risk Assessment is not only required but is a useful tool to expose potential vulnerabilities.
- Policies and Procedures are curated to fit your organization ensuring employees are updated on all Workstation Use and Security Safeguards in the office, or out. Update in real-time.
- Electronic, prepared document sending and signing to employees and business associates.
Don’t risk your company’s future, especially when we are offering a free Organization Assessment to help determine your company’s status. Call us at (980) 999-1585, or email me, Jim Johnson at Jim@LiveCompliance.com or visit www.LiveCompliance.com
For more information about DarkWeb breaches please contact us at (980) 999-1585 or email us at support@livecompliance.com
ABOUT EZCLAIM:
As a medical billing expert, EZClaim can help the medical practice improve its revenues since it is a medical billing and scheduling software company. EZClaim provides a best-in-class product, with correspondingly exceptional service and support. Combined, EZClaim helps improve medical billing revenues. To learn more, visit EZClaim’s website, email them, or call them today at 877.650.0904.
Jul 26, 2021 | Partner, Trizetto Partner Solutions
Medicare is the largest payer for most practitioners, so it’s important that providers maintain current credentials. Medicare requires providers to revalidate every five years to verify credentials and ensure they meet Medicare qualifications. Providers must confirm or update information including the legal entity name, physical address, phone, fax, national provider identifiers, employer identification number, and board certifications and licenses if applicable.
While typically a straightforward process, if not completed correctly and on time, providers will be terminated from the program and required to reapply. Until a new application is processed and approved, which can take anywhere from 90-120 days, reimbursements will stop, disrupting the revenue cycle.
Occasionally, providers may receive off-cycle revalidation requests. These are typically triggered when anomalies are identified such as billing rates that are significantly higher than other providers in the same geography, billing for services not rendered, or billing patients for services that Medicare doesn’t allow.
To comply with Medicare revalidation requirements, providers need to know their revalidation schedule and make sure applications and supporting documentation are submitted through Medicare’s PECOS online application portal. Revalidation dates cannot be extended, so it’s important they’re submitted on time. Using a third party to navigate the nuances of Medicare revalidation and PECOS removes the burden from provider staff and ensures accurate and timely filing.
TriZetto Provider Solutions (TPS) offers an end-to-end credentialing service that includes continuous payer follow-up and insight into enrollment status. Our dedicated team takes provider data, verifies it for accuracy, and submits credentials for revalidation through PECOS. All Medicare-participating providers are subject to revalidation, and mistakes made before or during the process can result in loss of eligibility and other penalties.
Having nearly four decades of experience working with payers and providers, the TPS credentialing experts understand the importance of maintaining current credentials. Contact us to learn more about our Medicare revalidation services.
ABOUT EZCLAIM:
As a medical billing expert, EZClaim can help the medical practice improve its revenues since it is a medical billing and scheduling software company. EZClaim provides a best-in-class product, with correspondingly exceptional service and support. Combined, EZClaim helps improve medical billing revenues. To learn more, visit EZClaim’s website, email them, or call them today at 877.650.0904.
