Summary: Protecting patient privacy is a priority for medical answering services and clinicians alike. But what about the doctor’s privacy? With secure patient messaging, a doctor can communicate after hours without revealing his home phone or mobile number.
Medical answering services provide a critical after-hours link between clinicians and their patients. Rather than relying on voicemail or just letting the phones go unanswered, clinicians partner with service providers like Apello. In turn, we handle incoming calls and route them accordingly. We take messages when necessary, help patients schedule visits, and even perform call triage.
When messages are forwarded to on-call clinicians, they create a dilemma. Clinicians know they have to return phone calls, but they don’t want to risk revealing their home or mobile numbers. At the same time, any calls they do make are governed by HIPAA regulations.
How It Normally Goes Down
Imagine it is 9 o’clock on a Thursday evening. An on-call physician receives an urgent notification of a patient experiencing postoperative pain. He can’t wait to return the call. The doctor needs to contact the patient right away to assess whether he needs to visit the emergency department. One of the following three options typifies how a call like this normally goes down:
- Cell Phone Response – The clinician dials out directly using his cell phone. His cell number is exposed to the patient as a result. This opens the door to future, unmanaged calls and texts after hours.
- Caller ID Block – The doctor calls out with caller ID suppression. On the other end, the patient doesn’t answer the phone because ‘Unknown Number’ or ‘No Caller ID’ is displayed on his screen. He does not get the critical care he needs.
- Standard Text Message – The doctor sends a quick text from his cell phone. Although standard text messaging is convenient, it is often in violation of HIPAA regulations. Clinicians are not allowed to communicate via standard texts if messages contain Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI).
None of these potential solutions is adequate at a time when clinicians must go to great lengths to protect themselves and their patients. Fortunately, modern healthcare technology offers a practical and compliant path forward by combining medical answering services with secure messaging platforms.
The HIPAA’s Security Rule
Understanding why secure messaging is so essential begins with knowledge of consumer communication channels and regulatory standards. The HIPAA’s Security Rule requires that all platforms transmitting ePHI incorporate technical safeguards. Examples include:
- Access controls.
- Audit controls.
- Integrity controls.
- Transmission security.
Standard text messaging platforms tend to lack these controls. Most of them also do not have end-to-end encryption either. Data remains unprotected on commercial carrier servers, and providers cannot produce an audit trail of who accessed the data and when.
Additional problems are created if a doctor loses an unencrypted phone that contains text logs of patient conversations. Under such circumstances, his practice would be subject to mandatory data breach reporting. The practice could be looking at financial penalties and reputational damage as a result.
Secure Patient Messaging Is the Answer
Secure messaging platforms are the answer to the after-hours dilemma. They create a zero-trust encrypted environment through which a physician can use his smartphone to make contact with patients. Best of all, a platform operates completely separately from a device’s personal data.
Combining a secure messaging platform with professional medical answering services creates the perfect scenario for on-call physicians. Here is what the workflow looks like step by step:
1. Intelligent Intake and Triage
When an after-hours call first comes in, a fully trained professional answers. The agent greets the caller and gathers intake information. She also determines whether the purpose of the call meets the practice’s criteria for an urgent on-call dispatch.
2. Encrypted Data Transmission
Rather than sending a standard text message to the on-call clinician, the agent inputs intake details into a secure computer system. That system instantly generates an encrypted push notification that gets sent to a secure app on the physician’s phone.
3. Authentication and Access
Before the clinician can view the message, he must prove his identity through a unique PIN or biometric verification. ID authentication prevents unauthorized users from accessing messages should the doctor misplace his phone. It’s also worth noting that the information itself is never transmitted to the phone. It stays within the secure platform. It is only viewed using the phone as a terminal.
4. Secure Outbound Call
If it’s necessary to place a direct call to the patient, the clinician taps a button on his phone. However, the call is not completed using the local cellular network. Instead, it is handled by the secure messaging app via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
When the patient receives an incoming call, he never sees the doctor’s home or cell phone number. Instead, the messaging platform software automatically displays the clinic’s main office number.
The Operational Advantages Are Unbeatable
There is no denying that combining a medical answering service with a secure messaging platform adds yet another expense to the monthly budget. But the operational advantages of doing so simply cannot be beaten. Together, the two offer more than just a win for compliance officers. They directly improve daily operations by:
- Eliminating physician friction.
- Accelerating response times.
- Improving patient trust.
- Avoiding fines and reputational damage.
- Creating centralized communication logs.
Eliminating friction is probably the biggest practical benefit to clinicians with a medical answering service and secure messaging platform. Clinicians do not have to carry separate on-call pagers or burner phones. They can handle all after-hours messages with their personal or practice phones and remain secure and compliant.
Protect Your Patients and Yourself
After-hours calls are a reality in the medical profession. But calls don’t have to put your own privacy at risk. Just as your office strives to protect patient privacy in response to HIPAA regulations, you can protect your own privacy by combining a medical answering service with a secure messaging platform.
We invite you to contact Apello to learn more about how we implement secure messaging. We specialize in medical answering services for practices of all types and sizes.
FAQS
Why is standard text messaging considered non-compliant with HIPAA?
Standard text messaging services are usually not encrypted. They also lack the sorts of access controls necessary to protect confidential information.
Does secure messaging require physicians to carry a second device?
No, because all data remains secure within the platform itself, doctors can access it with their personal or business phones.
What happens if a doctor misplaces his phone?
Privacy is maintained in two ways. First, patient data and communications are never stored on the phone. They are stored within the application itself. Second, the application cannot be accessed without a PIN or biometric authentication.
How does secure messaging mask the clinician’s phone number?
Calls made through a secure messaging platform aren’t actually completed by local cellular networks. They are completed via VoIP embedded within the platform. The platform replaces the physician’s number with the practice’s main phone number for display purposes.
Can secure messaging platforms handle photos and other attached files?
Yes. Modern platforms are fully capable of properly handling all sorts of attachments. Everything is transmitted through an encrypted pathway, making data always accessible through the app.
