Chances are, you're already familiar with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and
Accountabilty Act). Some of its provisions stipulate the handling of personal
health care information, designed to safeguard against disclosure of confidential
information to unwarranted recipients.
HIPAA has ramifications for every doctor, hospital, and clinic, and their agents.
In this context, the regulations are concerned with the risk of "leaking" sensitive
information. Everyone who comes in contact with your patients' information is a
potential risk from the HIPAA perspective.
Answer Excellence's hiring and training practices, physical
security, and computer security measures safeguard your information and your protect patients'
records.
We control every step of the process in our enviroment.
Once a message leaves our facilities for delivery to you, other considerations
apply.
Some of these considerations are outlined in the table below,
in approximate order of decreasing security (increasing vulnerability).
Security of Message Delivery Methods
| Method | Security Level | Primary vulnerabilty |
| FAX | Generally considered secure | FAX being picked up from recipient machine by unauthorized party (physical security) |
| Voice phone call | Generally considered secure | Eavesdropping (especially in a wireless or cordless environment) |
| Text messaging via secure mobile option (value-added service) | Generally considered secure | Access to recipient's device by unauthorized individual |
| Alpha Pager (TAP modem protocol) | Generally considered reasonably secure | Interception by specialized radio equipment during the broadcast from tower to pager. |
| Text Message to cell phone using e-mail address | Generally considered moderately insecure | Exposure of clear-text message on the internet |
| E-mail message to secure server & client combination | Generally considered moderately insecure | Exposure of clear-text message on the internet |
| E-mail message to public server / client combination (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) | Generally considered insecure | Exposure of clear-text message on the public internet, compromise of User ID and Password |
In general, the medical community has elected to use standard message delivery methods (text message to cell phone, in the middle of the table above) as a compromise between cost, availability, and exposure to risk. We encourage our clients to choose a method delivery with regard to their needs and liability considerations. We cannot be held responsible for interception or disclosure of messages once they leave our facility.
If you have any questions about the security of your message delivery, we will be happy to talk with you. You can call us at (800) 854-6018.