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4 Reasons You Need HIPAA Compliant Texting in 2024
You're juggling patient care and coordination with your physicians while managing a mountain of sensitive information. Sound familiar?
When every second and detail matters, the last thing you need is to worry about the security of your communication. Data breaches, PHI leaks, and the dreaded HIPAA violation. The solution: HIPAA compliant texting.
With nearly a century of experience in handling medical calls, we’ve helped a few medical practices ditch the pager and embrace HIPAA compliant texting. And trust us, when it comes to your patients' privacy and the integrity of your practice, you don't want to leave anything to chance.
So, let’s look at why using HIPAA compliant text messaging in your medical practice isn't just a nice-to-have - it's an absolute must in today's healthcare landscape.
- Your Physicians Can File Messages to Stay Organized
- You Decide When Your Secure Message Expires
- You Can Remotely Wipe All HIPAA Compliant Text Messaging
- You Can Track and Confirm All Messages Sent on a HIPAA Compliant Texting App
1. Your Physicians Can File Messages to Stay Organized
One thing with many secure texting apps used in healthcare is that they aren’t made for healthcare professionals. You and your physicians can get really busy. Tracking messages is one thing, but being able to sort and file messages for your peace of mind is the mark of something designed for you.
A secure messaging app like Startel Secure Messaging Plus can clear your messages easily as in the video below.
2. You Decide When Your Secure Message Expires
A big fear of physicians – and HIPAA compliance officers – is what happens to old patient information. What if someone forgets to delete old texts and someone else ends up with it?
Consider this scenario: a physician switches phones without realizing that old text messages containing patient details are still lingering on the device. Then, there's a breach of patient privacy, and patient health information (PHI) gets leaked.
If you run your medical practice, how could you know for sure how PHI was leaked?
And, even if you did know, what could you do to retract or delete the information now that it’s on another phone that isn’t yours or your physician’s property?
With a HIPAA compliant texting app, you can set an expiration date for any message. This way, you and your physician wouldn’t need to worry about having to delete messages at any point.
On that note, HIPAA compliant texting also allows you to erase all trace of data stored on the app.
3. You Can Remotely Wipe All HIPAA Compliant Text Messaging
What if, instead of the phone being given away or sold, it gets lost, or worse, stolen?
It’s not unheard of for hackers or thieves to intentionally leak patient health information. So, even if it’s properly locked, determined people can often try to figure out a way into them, and any patient records.
With a secure HIPAA compliant texting app like Startel Secure Messaging Plus, you can remotely wipe all data stored on the device! All you would need to do is login to the platform on your web browser and hit the remote wipe function. Easy as that!
4. You Can Track Your Messages on a HIPAA Compliant Texting App
Exactly as it sounds - a HIPAA compliant text messaging app allows you to track your messages.
This lets senders know when a text was received and read. This can be a handy feature for urgent needs and official correspondence and also makes sure the intended person received your message.
Remember:
Like normal text messaging which shows a “delivered” or “read”, HIPAA compliant texting offers the same!
Whether you’re looking at tracking the delivery of important PHI or notice of a scheduled appointment, a secure texting app would have your back. No more guessing if they got the message.
Which HIPAA Compliant Texting App Should You Get?
So, should you get a HIPAA compliant texting app? In short, yes. It isn't just about sending messages; it's about getting your medical practice to take control of its communication environment to prevent any chance of a HIPAA violation.
"But, which secure texting app should I get?"
Startel’s Secure Messaging Application is what we use at Ambs Call Center. It’s been reliable and safe in our experience, but you should know that it isn’t the only HIPAA compliant texting app out there. There are many popular HIPAA compliant texting apps that offer similar functions and you (and we) can send secure messages using all of them.
Some of our favorites include: TigerConnect, Symplyr (formerly known as Halo), and On-Page
Now, if you are looking at using a HIPAA compliant answering service or upgrading the patient experience over your current solution, here are a few things you might want to know: