HIPAA-compliant texting applications are solutions that physicians, nurses and hospital employees use to exchange protected health information (PHI). A HIPAA-compliant texting app enables healthcare employees to send messages that contain identifying patient information.
Failure to use a HIPAA-compliant texting app when sending messages to hospital colleagues can constitute a HIPAA fine. Indeed, HIPAA officials have cited health facilities for exchanging protected patient information that was neither encrypted nor password protected. When a HIPAA fine is instituted, the fine can reach several million dollars.
The mandate to protect patient privacy was set into effect by Congress with the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that decreed the importance of maintaining patient privacy and ensured its protection.
Since 2013, HIPAA-compliant messaging has gained even more importance as the 2013 legislation increased privacy and security protection for individuals’ personal health. The legislation also increased the penalty for breaches and penalties for noncompliance based on the level of negligence, with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per violation.
Hospitals are increasingly realizing that exchange of PHI via pagers risks a HIPAA violation and can incur a significant fine. By exchanging PHI via pagers and not through a HIPAA-compliant texting app, sensitive patient information can be accessed by unauthorized third parties and be used to defraud patients and their healthcare providers.
Modern healthcare institutions are moving toward a HIPAA compliant texting solution that provides secure messaging and upholds the mandates of HIPAA.
Use of a secure texting solution is required when the physician or nurse sends a text or message containing patient information, care instructions or other relevant patient information. When this type of patient information is sent, the content of the message must be both secure and encrypted.
When hospitals and clinics introduce secure texting into their organization, they must maintain reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards for protecting e-PHI. The Department of Health and Human Services further spells this out when it states that organizations must:
When healthcare personnel embrace HIPAA-compliant texting, their offices will see benefits such as improved security of patient information, better patient outcomes and stronger communications.
Our whitepaper The Benefits of HIPAA-Compliant Texting looks into these advantages as well as investigating details such as:
Accelerate healthcare response by securing and simplifying communication workflows for care teams. With OnPage, healthcare organizations can schedule clinicians on a digital scheduler and route critical notifications to the right on-call care professional, all while meeting HIPAA-compliance regulations.
Miguel A. Cano, MD, FACOG
Adventist Health Center
Susan E. Moynihan, MD
North Shore Physicians Group
