Known in full as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the HIPAA is the legislation that governs the access, storage, and security of medical information, to be particularly patient information. The law was proven necessary given the multiple data breaches and cyber-attacks on medical practices and insurance providers.

The importance of this piece of legislation is in its restriction of disclosure of personal health information. Its provisions and regulations seek to protect the patient’s health information. Doctors and medical practices are required to give an account of the various parties that have access to a patient’s PHI.

All services offered by a reputable medical practice should meet the provisions of the HIPAA. This includes automated answering machines and queue systems. It is only when they meet the provisions of the legislation the patient’s information can be truly protected and guaranteed. In this article, we will be looking into the benefits that a HIPAA-compliant answering service can offer your medical practice.

The features of medical answering service

Simply because you require such a service in your facility doesn’t mean you should install any kind. The right system should be able to meet the needs of the facility as well as that of your patients. Below are some of the features that your answering service should offer:

–  Appointment Scheduling. Your answering service should be able to shoulder the burden of slotting patients into the doctor’s schedule.

– Call management. Every call received by your medical facility should be tracked, prioritized, and forwarded to the right department. It goes without saying that this should be in compliance with HIPAA and other data laws.

– Security features. Only certain people should be able to access the system. This allows the management to track its use.

Having a HIPAA-compliant answering machine in place improves the medical reputation management of the medical practice.

The benefits of a HIPAA-Compliant Answering Service

– Greater Customer Care. With an answering service, the staff no longer have to juggle between offering patients service and answering the telephone. Patients are now offered better service.

– Reduced errors. Even with proper training, humans are bound to make errors. This is especially true in the paperwork from the front desk. Such scenarios are reduced with an answering service in place. Multi-tasking is decreased significantly making your front office error-free.

– Save on time and money. Can you imagine the hours saved by having in place an answering service? Your staff can now be immersed in other activities. With an answering service, you can even decide to reduce the size of your staff. This saves your company on expenses and improves the ROI.

Conclusion

With the details expressed above, one cannot deny the benefits and advantages of having a HIPAA-compliant answering service in your medical practice. Not only does it save on time and money but it also handles your appointment scheduling needs.