Last month we discussed the importance of choosing a Medical Answering Service that is HIPAA compliant to protect your customers, as well as your medical practice. This month we’d like to expand on the importance of not only selecting an answering service that is HIPAA compliant, but to select an answering service that only employs in-house agents or team members.
How Secure is a Home Office
In order to comply with the HIPAA law, all patient information must be secure and regulated by a strict guideline that is enforced by a HIPAA Security Officer on staff with any business that is medically related or deals with the medical field in any way. This includes an outsourced answering service for any medical office. In recent years, it has become a trend for answering services to have home-based agents. It’s more cost effective and they can easily find employees with flexible hours. However, it is not secure. Utilizing home-based agents would make it impossible to comply with HIPAA and guarantee that data and patient information is truly protected.
Guaranteeing Protection for You
Cosmopolitan Medical’s Team Members are all in-house and trained profusely in HIPAA policies and procedures to guarantee protection for you and your patients. Our computer systems are guarded and monitored with the top anti-virus software to protect from information being hacked and stolen. All employees are provided with a locker to leave personal effects such as cell phones, purses, and cameras; these items are not permitted where your phone lines are answered. Cosmopolitan Medical also has a certified HIPAA Security Officer that enforces all policies and will identify and take the proper steps to correct any breaches in the system in the quickest possible manner. You will not find these precautions taken when outsourcing to a home-based answering service.
