What is HIPAA?
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. It is legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information referred to as Protected Health information (PHI).
What does HIPAA have to do with patient communication?
HIPAA requires Covered Entities and Business Associates to safeguard Protected Health Information, more commonly known as PHI. As you communicate with patients via call, text, email, etc...make sure to not only obtain consent, but also protect the 18 Identifiers.
Why is Rhinogram HIPAA Compliant?
Rhinogram is a platform that encrypts all of your side of the patient communication equation. A patient may elect to use a non-secure form of communication to transmit to you, but you must make sure as a clinician that you are securing the patient data on your end. Rhinogram's interface, whether on the mobile application or the desktop browser is completely encrypted for the practice. Rhinogram also provides you with RhinoSecure which offers end to end encryption even on the patient's end.
How do I get a patient’s consent to discuss their care via text or Facebook messenger?
Obtaining consent is made easy with Rhinogram. Located at the bottom of every conversation thread, you will find the message attachment button. By selecting this, you will have the option to access our HIPAA Consent Request Template. This Consent Request has been approved by our HIPAA attorney, so you can feel confident in what you are sending to your patients/prospects. By responding affirmatively to the consent request, a patient is agreeing that they would like to use texting and/or Facebook messenger to chat with you about their care even though their end of the communication may not be completely secure depending on how their device is configured.
Note: You may also select "Use consent request template ->" under the contact's Communication Consent to quickly past in the the request template
As always, you can also obtain consent for Rhinogram through your normal HIPAA Policy/ Consent workflow by adding it to your HIPAA statement for patients to sign in office. Then you can easily mark that the patient has granted consent in the Contact record in Rhinogram.
What is the Rhinogram HIPAA consent template for?
This is a quick and easy way to get consent through Rhinogram without having to update your HIPAA authorization form (all though you can if you want). You can access this template in every conversation thread by selecting the message attachment button.
- If a patient has either Granted HIPAA consent or Denied HIPAA consent, this action will reflect in each contact's individual conversation thread.
What kinds of things should I avoid discussing via text if I don’t have consent from a patient to do so?
Until you obtain consent, you should not have any conversations concerning the health care of an individual through Rhinogram. See the 18 Identifiers to learn more about what topics are considered PHI.
Why don’t I have to get consent for appointment reminders, but I do for other kinds of texting?
According to HHS (Health and Human Services) and OCR (Office of Civil Rights), appointment reminders are not considered a violation of PHI (Protected Health Information). Ex: Mary, your appointment is at 2:00pm tomorrow. For any other health care information which involves the 18 Identifiers, consent is needed.
Can I initially contact a potential patient that was referred to me by another doctor by text before they are actually a patient?
Yes, there are current no laws in place to prevent this and since the patient is not a true patient yet, HIPAA laws do not apply. However, we do suggest introducing yourself as the potential new provider to give warning for double protection. An example of this would be:
(Hi Mary! This is Rhinogram Health Clinic. You have been referred to us by Dr. Ray Smith for a spine X-ray. We have the following days and times available: Tuesday 8:30am or 1pm, Wed 10am or 2pm. Will any of these work for you? Texting may not be 100% secure based on your carrier and phone type. Reply "agree" to consent to this form of communication.)