HIPAA vs Online Reviews

HIPAA vs Online Reviews: A Primetime Matchup

March 18, 2021

Let’s face it, social media and the internet tend to call the plays when it comes to our decision-making. Whether you’re shopping for a new car or just deciding between tacos or pizza for dinner, seeing a one-star review pop up under your Google search is a total red flag. So, when 95% of patients say that online reviews are reliable and over 70% say that reviews have influence over their choice of physician – being on the receiving end of a bad review can feel like a total cheap shot.

There’s really no such thing as pleasing everyone – and as a practice owner, having to deal with some unhappy patients just kind of comes with the territory. Even all-star’s get the occasional “boo” from the crowd and seeing a patient post “100% would NOT recommend!!” about your practice can be a hard hit to recover from. As much as we all want to come to our own defense, choosing to fight back does a lot more damage than just taking the ‘L’ in the online face-off with a patient. Just take it from the dental practice who was slammed with a $10,000 fine for including sensitive patient information in their response to a Yelp review.

You might be thinking if someone submits a review about my practice aren’t they already admitting that they’re a patient themselves? Though you aren’t totally wrong, HIPAA law is in place to protect patients’ privacy – and a patient submitting a review is NOT authorization for you to go and release their sensitive information when responding. So, while there might not be a winning playbook for how to keep your patients happy, there are some guidelines for how to best handle online reviews:

Don’t get personal. Provide a generic response that doesn’t in any way share patient’s protected health information (PHI) or any other identifiers that link them to your practice.
Don’t overdo it. Long responses can be overwhelming and it’s better to keep it short and sweet to avoid giving away too much information.
Be the bigger person. Thank your reviewers, even if they’re negative. Showing appreciation for any feedback you receive will score you some brownie points with prospective patients.
Take it offline. Let the patient know that they should contact your office to discuss further. This way you can still try to mitigate the issue by getting more details on their experience but in a safe, secure AND HIPAA-friendly environment.

Since there’s no one-size-fits-all response for any and every online review, your practice may receive some feedback that seems a bit out-of-left-field, and knowing how to handle it might be tricky. So to give you some sideline practice, let’s pretend you just received this negative review:

“I had to wait over an hour to be seen and the doctor was rude and rushed through my appointment. Overall it was a terrible experience and I will not be back.”– Negative Nancy

A bad response for your practice would be:

“We’re sorry you had a bad experience during your appointment, however, our records show that you were late to your appointment which therefore caused a delay in your wait time.”

A HIPAA-compliantresponse would be:

“Our practice’s scheduling policy allows for adequate time with the doctor in order to keep our appointments running on time. However, due to emergency situations, it is possible for us to run behind schedule occasionally. We appreciate your feedback and are committed to providing the best patient care; you’re always welcome to contact our office if you would like to discuss further.”

It’s pretty easy to see why response #1 would probably end up on Sportscenter’s Not Top 10 Plays of the Week – but unfortunately, we are seeing more and more real-life examples of practice comments similar to this one. With patient complaint numbers on the rise and proposed regulation updates centered around improving patient rights, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has definitely made it clear that they’ll be bringing their “A” game on HIPAA enforcement.

Online reviews (both good and bad) should be handled with extreme care not only to protect your practice’s reputation amongst prospective patients but also to avoid any flags thrown by the OCR. So, while we hope that you won’t have to go head-to-head with a one-star Google review anytime soon, following HIPAA best-practices when and if you do will be the ultimate game-changer.

Location-Specific SRAs: A Must-Have for Healthcare Organizations

December 17, 2024 Penelope Schweitzer No comments yet

December 17, 2024 Keeping all locations in line with HIPAA regulations can be quite a challenge, especially when managing a multi-location practice. It’s a complex puzzle that requires careful attention to detail and a proactive approach to ensure compliance across the board. And we hate to break it to you, but a blanket Security Risk Analysis for your organization isn’t enough. A Security Risk Analysis, or SRA, is a thorough review of your organization’s physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect patient data. Even when you’re managing compliance at a single location within a multi-location organization, you are responsible for ensuring an SRA is completed for your location. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is serious about this requirement, as indicated by a recent significant fine. A penalty of over $500,000 was recently announced for the Children’s Hospital of Colorado system. While this investigation was sparked by a phishing attack, one of the major findings was missing SRAs for all locations. Completing this SRA is imperative. As the OCR spearheads new enforcement and initiatives, it’s time to get compliant. What is a SRA? The SRA is an in-depth review of everything your practice does to ensure patient data is safe. This means everything from whether your practice utilizes alarms and codes on doors to the servers you use and even how your staff handles patient intake, like how the sign-in sheet process works. The SRA is the first step of a compliant practice because it allows you to review your vulnerabilities and make changes to uphold your commitment to keeping data safe. The SRA is also a requirement for MIPS. Unfortunately, the SRA is a commonly missed requirement for medical practices. In fact, 86% of all practices could not show an adequate SRA in the last round of random HIPAA audits. Completing a sufficient Security Risk Assessment (SRA) is essential for maintaining a compliant medical practice. This process is closely linked to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Risk Analysis Initiative, which mandates that medical practices and organizations carry out this required assessment. Recently, the Bryan County Ambulance Authority was fined $90,000 for failing to conduct an SRA, marking the first enforcement action under this new initiative. This incident demonstrates the OCR’s commitment to this initiative and its dedication of resources to ensure compliance. Importance of Location-Specific SRAs When conducting a SRA, assessing every location within your organization is vital. While performing a single SRA for the entire entity might seem easier, compliance is more intricate and requires ongoing attention rather than being a one-off endeavor. Each location has distinct vulnerabilities that must be acknowledged and addressed. For instance, one location might have different vendors than another, and another location might be in an older building, with different security to keep Protected Health Information (PHI) safe. Although some overarching requirements may come from the main location, capturing each site’s specific conditions is essential. This thorough documentation demonstrates that every location takes compliance seriously, addresses vulnerabilities, and keeps patient data safe. How to Complete an SRA With the right resources, managing and completing an SRA for a multi-location practice can be simplified. Organization is key: ensuring each location completes all SRAs and can be easily accessed in a centralized location. Your organization can efficiently complete this requirement by having a tailored set of questions for each location. To learn more about streamlining your multi-location SRAs for your organization, schedule a consultation with a HIPAA expert today.

Abyde News, Best Practices, HIPAA

The Security Risk Analysis: Setting the Pace for MIPS and HIPAA Compliance

December 4, 2024 Penelope Schweitzer No comments yet

December 4, 2024 As a healthcare provider, tackling your daily to-do list probably feels like running a marathon without a finish line at times. You’re tasked with managing a successful business, keeping up with ever-changing legislation and new technology while ensuring that your top priority of patient care never falls behind. Despite the challenging course, there’s a benefit to keeping pace with both quantity and quality. Providers are rewarded for going the extra mile thanks to Value-Based payment programs like MIPS and other government incentives like the HIPAA Safe Harbor Law. What is MIPS? You’ve most likely heard of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and might already be a participant in it. Whether it’s a Quality Payment Program or new legislation passed into law, the government continually emphasizes the importance of being proactive rather than reactive and providing incentives for doing so. This is why it’s valuable to know whether your organization is eligible to participate in government programs (you can check here). Many of these different program requirements align with the standards your practice already has to meet under HIPAA law—protecting your patients, checking off compliance requirements, and receiving incentives can often be done all in one stride. To take a quick step back, MIPS is one of two payment tracks under the Medicare Quality Payment Program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) uses this system to measure eligible clinician performance and reward high-value, low-cost care. MIPS participants can receive a payment adjustment to their Medicare reimbursements based on their performance scores across four different categories: Quality: The type of care you deliver based on specific measures of performance. Promoting Interoperability: Focuses on patient engagement and electronic exchange of information using Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology to improve patient access to their health information and exchange of information between providers. Improvement Activities: Your participation in clinical activities that work towards improving care coordination and patient engagement and safety. Cost: Assesses the cost of care you provide in relation to your Medicare claims. The Importance of the Security Risk Analysis (SRA) Before you can engage with the various performance measures, you must first meet a prerequisite for participating in the MIPS Promoting Interoperability performance category. This requirement is crucial not only for achieving HIPAA compliance but also for benefiting from other government incentives: the Security Risk Analysis (SRA). Conducting an SRA involves evaluating any potential risks to your organization’s electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) and implementing necessary security updates and safeguards to address any identified vulnerabilities. Your organization must complete an SRA at least once a year to comply with MIPS and HIPAA standards. Additionally, it’s important to review and update the assessment regularly throughout the year to reflect any changes in your processes. Getting Compliant for MIPS Beginning your compliance journey can be overwhelming, but it is essential to take advantage of government initiatives such as MIPS. Intelligent software solutions can help keep your practice on track by outlining the requirements for HIPAA compliance and offering a streamlined SRA that meets MIPS standards. To learn more about how to become compliant for MIPS, schedule a meeting with a compliance expert today.

Abyde News, Fines, HIPAA

The Price of Delay: A Costly HIPAA Lesson

December 2, 2024 Penelope Schweitzer No comments yet

December 2, 2024 Over a million dollars in HIPAA fines have been levied in the past few months, and like this winter’s snow, the fines continue to pile up, with a $100,000 fine recently announced. Last week, Rio Hondo Community Mental Health Center, an outpatient program managed by the Los Angeles Department of Health, was fined for a Right of Access violation. This marks the 51st enforcement of the Right of Access rule, highlighting the importance of handling patient records in a timely manner. What Happened? A patient requested a copy of their records on March 18, 2020. As we all know, March 2020 was marked by the beginning of the unprecedented COVID-19 virus, which led to the mental health center’s closure after the Governor of California put into action a “stay-at-home” order. However, the center reopened at the beginning of May 2020, allowing some staff to return to the facility. While the patient was told her records would be ready at this time, she was misinformed and began the summer with a flurry of calls and other forms of contact to request her medical records. After her requests were unfulfilled several times, the patient filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the end of August 2020. The OCR then began investigating the Rio Hondo at the beginning of October. The medical records were finally sent on October 20, 2020, 216 days after the first request. The Right of Access rule requires Covered Entities to provide patients with their medical records within 30 days of the initial request. While the medical center was under a “stay-at-home” order during those 30 days, this was still significantly longer than the extension period of an additional 30 days and could have been handled when it was first deemed safe for staff to return to the medical center. This fine comes after a series of Right of Access fines, including another significant fine of $70,000 imposed at the end of October. The numerous fines issued this past year regarding the Right of Access initiative demonstrate the government’s commitment to this important aspect of patients’ rights. Protect Your Practice from Costly Mistakes Even during the peak of the global health crisis, HIPAA regulations stayed in effect. Implementing software solutions can help safeguard your practice. To ensure your staff remains compliant, it is highly recommended to use automated software that keeps you and your team in check, regardless of the circumstances. Schedule a consultation today to learn more about automated compliance for your practice.

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