Physicians Practice - April 2008 - (Page 51)

routed to a lot of different places before it travels from your practice to a patient’s inbox. Along the way, anyone could intercept that e-mail and read what you have written. “You’re going to have to talk to a vendor about encryption if you’re going to send patient information,” says Dunn. “You are required to protect that e-mail if somebody else has the ability to get it.” A patient portal is nothing more than a protected Web site that resides on your network server. To access the site, patients have to enter a username and password. Only then can they communicate with the practice or read messages from their physicians. By keeping the Web site on your server, you can make sure your communications remain private. HIPAA regulations require that your practice have a plan for backing up patient information, storing backups, and retrieving data in the case of an emergency. IT’S THE LAW There are a number of programs you can use to encrypt e-mails. All of them involve the same basic principle: sharing a code with patients so that they can decipher the e-mail messages you send to them. If they send e-mails in return, then you also want to make sure they’re encrypting their own information. So not only will you need an encryption program for your e-mails, but you should also advise your patients to install one of their own so they can send and decipher e-mails from you. Once you set up the encryption program, it’s a good idea to give your patients written instructions or let them call with questions about how to download and install an encryption program on their personal computers … WAIT! STOP! Getting a headache? No wonder. A medical practice shouldn’t have to double as an IT support company. There’s an easier way. It’s called a patient portal, and it lets your practice keep physician-patient communications secure without being too complex or asking patients to download a single thing. WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM Family Practice Associates of Lexington uses a portal to communicate with their patients. “We accept requests for appointments, prescription reﬁlls, and some basic questions via the Web site in a secure environment,” says Miller. Luckily, setting up a patient portal isn’t very difﬁcult. In fact, says Dunn, many practice management programs already have some sort of portal component. She recommends using a patient portal over e-mail encryption. Talk to your practice management software vendor to evaluate what option is best for your needs. 3. GRILL YOUR VENDORS In fact, you should talk to all of your software vendors about their security measures. Most people assume their EMR vendor has adequate security, but that may not be true. “Don’t be satisﬁed with hearing, ‘Yes, we adhere to all HIPAA security rules and regulations,’” says Dunn. “Tell me what you mean by that. What ones are you referring to? And how do you adhere to them? Some people don’t even ask, so they don’t really know.” APRIL 2008 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | 51 http://PracticeSalesUSA.com http://PracticeSalesUSA.com http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - April 2008

Physicians Practice - April 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Medicare Decision Time Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: Outsource Your Pain Noteworthy Cover Story: Trial Lawyers Tell All Management: When It’s Time to Change Ask the Experts Technology: Do You Know Where Your Data Is? The Tech Doctor: Are Your Discarded PCs Really Clean? Billing & Collections: Playing Hardball The Administrator's Desk: Recruiting for Patient Satisfaction Start It Up: Finance - Mastering the Numbers Game Coding The Great Practice Makeover: Taking Care of Business Associates Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - April 2008

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