How does technology empower healthcare compliance?

Healthcare compliance is the process of meeting or exceeding HIPAA standards and guidelines, in addition to any relevant legal and ethical compliance standards. It ensures that your healthcare practice is held accountable for their medical actions, and delegates the responsibility of care when it comes to handling your patients. Healthcare compliance pertains to all medical businesses and providers, regardless of their size, and consistently attends to the regulation of privacy for patients and staff.

Because there are many different rules to follow that can change relatively quickly, sometimes it can be a struggle to keep up. Healthcare compliance can become a complex matter if your operations and workflow do not accommodate such changes, and without regular monitoring, you could end up committing fraud or malpractice. Many healthcare businesses, such as Carepatron, make medical compliance easy, with embedded resources and templates providing guidelines that show you how to comply with security standards. Using such software and technology can empower your healthcare business to prioritize patient needs, while also fulfilling legal obligations, thus, being a great option to elevate your service.

The Health Insurance Portability Act (HIPAA) is widely known and recognized throughout the healthcare industry and is established to protect health data and prevent security oversights and failures. It ensures the regulation of technology use and works to minimize security threats to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of patient data. HIPAA regulations also facilitate successful and safe information transactions across practices, as well as creating standardized electronic billing and coding processes to ensure patient health information is accurate. 

With many medical practices using electronic health records (EHR), you must adhere to HIPAA security protocol. It allows for effective safeguarding and management processes to ensure that patient information correlates to the right IDs, with relevant medical history listed under the right individuals, as well as various other tasks. Just because your practice may use EHR systems also does not mean you are HIPAA compliant in and of itself, as you need to implement safety standards such as ensuring only authorized users have access, and that servers use encryption software. HIPAA guidelines serve as an overall excellent foundation to implement security processes and formulate a high-quality service that prioritizes patient needs whilst holding information private.

When harnessed correctly, technology can be one of the greatest assets to your healthcare business in regards to elevating the quality and strength of your medical compliance. Using medical software for healthcare businesses means you can deliver high-quality compliance solutions to protect patient data, whilst the digitizing of healthcare processes will also elevate the quality of your service. To summarize it for you, we have collated the top 6 ways that technology accentuates the healthcare industry.

• Provides historical data: Technology can keep electronic records of medical information long after their establishment. Not only does it provide an easy audit paper trail for compliance purposes, but the data can identify trends and patterns within your healthcare practice. These can be used to determine areas of weakness so you can facilitate improvements and the overall growth of your clinic.
• Continually secures patient information: The use of technology can protect patient data by using encrypted servers to store information securely, and in a way that maintains privacy and confidentiality. This means that every email, message, record, and document that is stored within the system is protected from hacks and data leakages, with patient data consistently cared for. 
• Easy document retrieval: Patients may need to be referred to specialists or other healthcare providers, or you may need to consult with physicians outside of your practice, meaning information needs to be highly accessible. HIPAA standards ensure that electronic copies are stored securely, and are highly transmissible if needed. Normally this means using cloud-based software, which allows for information to be retrieved at any time upon request, with minimal delays. 
• Visible patient progress: Based on self-reported systems and objective observation, you can access a patient’s progress in digital form at any time. It allows healthcare professionals to be on the same page when it comes to patient treatment and ensures that patients can be effectively seen and looked after.
• Reduced errors with streamlined processes: Automation of these systems allows business processes to be streamlined, meaning that major operations such as appointment booking and clinical document organization can be easily conducted. Because of the advanced technology, automation can greatly reduce errors in transcription, medical billing and coding procedures, as well as medication dosages amongst others. ‍
• Strong on-premise security: Medical software for healthcare businesses also allows for more robust cybersecurity systems that elevate the quality of physical safeguards. These include placement of workstations, using biometrics to log in, as well as granting access to specific users.

With the rapid development of new technologies, it is clear to see that software is becoming increasingly more commonplace in healthcare businesses, especially since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent patterns suggest that with the growing innovation and digitization of health care, these trends are expected to continue to develop and become even more prominent. To highlight this surge, we have covered some of the top current trends concerning healthcare digital solutions to keep an eye out for.

• Cloud-based services - With remote data storage that can continuously monitor documents and sensitive patient information, cloud-based options are becoming an increasingly popular option within healthcare. They have the ability to support consultations between practitioners, patients, and their teams, as well as providing heightened security, making them an excellent avenue. 
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning - With its powerful advanced capabilities, AI is revolutionizing the healthcare workspace by empowering healthcare professionals to increase their productivity and clinical outcomes. Machine learning and AI can take on the burden of tedious tasks and can speed up business processes and reduce costs for your healthcare practice. 
• Blockchain technology - While it may sound complicated, blockchain systems simply work to improve authenticity and allow for a higher degree of traceability within your clinic. They increase interoperability and accessibility, meaning healthcare professionals outside of your practice can access information if required, which is highly convenient. 
• Big data - Using big data, which is essentially any data concerning your healthcare practice, past and present, can be immensely useful for predictive analytics. Big data can provide insight into your operations and business decisions, and allow you to identify any weaknesses to improve upon for the growth and success of your business. 
  

Final Thoughts on the use of technology and HIPAA compliance

Adhering to HIPAA guidelines is essential for the smooth operations of your business, and allows for all communication channels to be secure, in addition to any sensitive health information concerning your patients. High-quality systems that are interoperable and highly accessible will allow you to use technological services to boost the quality of your clinic.

Incorporating technology does not have to be difficult, and investing in its services can mean faster business processes, seamless transactions, easy accessibility for a variety of healthcare providers, as well as encrypted servers for the highest level of security. You can customize applications to suit your business needs, with IT resources being able to elevate the quality and coordination of care, as well as patient satisfaction in your clinic. Aside from the minimized risk of security breaches, technology also means that you can grow your healthcare practice to deliver health solutions like no other. 

Further reading:

• The Use of Technology and HIPAA Compliance
• Accelerated Cloud Adoption Driven by the Need for Compliance and Telehealth