Texting with your patients can be a great way to remind them of appointments, send driving directions, and more, any texting initiated by a healthcare provider needs to be done with extreme caution to avoid running afoul of HIPAA privacy guidelines. https://eyecareleaders.com/hipaa-rules-while-texting-patients/

1. Are you texting patients? Make sure to stay on the right
side of HIPAA regulations!
Texting is more than just a fast, convenient, and even fun way to keep up
with friends and family. It is emerging as a new standard in health care
communication.
Many new ophthalmology proactive management software tools
and optometry practice management software systems include texting tools
that allow you to easily and quickly communicate with your patients.
While texting with your patients can be a great way to remind them of
appointments, send driving directions, and more, any texting initiated by a
healthcare provider needs to be done with extreme caution to avoid running
afoul of HIPAA privacy guidelines.
This blog explores HIPAA rules and how they pertain to texting so you can
communicate with your patients with confidence.
What Is HIPAA?
First of all, let’s take a moment to review what HIPAA is and why it matters
to your optometry practice or ophthalmology practice.
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
Passed by the United States Congress, HIPAA is federal legislation that
provides data privacy and security provision that is meant to safeguard a
patient’s medical information. The law has become prominent in recent
years due to the rise in various commutation tools and a slate of high-
profile data breaches caused by cyber-attacks and ransomware attacks on
health care providers and health insurers.
HIPAA has two main purposes – to ensure that workers who change jobs
or lose their jobs can enjoy continuous health insurance coverage and to
reduce the cost of healthcare by creating a standard framework that will
guide how data and financial transactions are handled electronically. Other
intended benefits included combating abuse, confronting fraud and waste,
and improving access to long term care services and health insurance.
HIPAA’s privacy rule, also known as the HIPAA Standards for Privacy, is
the rule that we are most interested in here. The rule establishes the first
national standards in the United States – and some of the first in the world
– meant to protect patients’ personal or protected health information (PHI).

2. The rule sought to protect the privacy of patients by requiring health care
providers to follow guidelines that would limit the accidental disclosure of
personal health information and while notifying patients of when their
personal health information was being handled. The privacy rule also
guaranteed that patients had the right to receive their own personal health
information upon request.
What are the benefits of texting patients?
Now that we know more about HIPAA, fast forward to 2022. Texting has
become perhaps the most widespread form of personal communication and
is quickly growing as the communication medium of choice when it comes
to communication between patients and their health care providers,
including eye care providers.
Why is texting so popular? Well, the answer is easy to understand. With
texting, you get instant delivery, high open rates, high reply to rates, the
ability to automate and the ability to schedule messages, and a degree of
personalization.
Many leading practice management tools, such as those from Eye Care
Leaders, include texting as a prominent feature. When paired with other
practice management tools, texting can improve customer relationship
management, has a higher success rate in getting messages read,
streamlines communication management, and can increase automation
and notifications. On top of that, it is convenient, and patients love it.
How do I make my text messages HIPAA compliant?
How to be HIPAA compliant is a major consideration when you are
contemplating launching a text messaging service. HIPAA complaint texts
can streamline your communication and increase patient engagement and
satisfaction. But violation of HIPAA rules can be serious – the minimum fine
for willful violations is $50,000, with criminal penalties by an individual
possibly reaching a quarter of a million dollars, and that is not counting any
restitution that may be ordered. Indeed, HIPAA violation consequences can
be heavy.
That said, it is certainly possible to initiate and maintain HIPAA-compliant
texting, especially if your texting is run through a high-quality practice
management system like that from Eye Care Leaders.
Here are five key rules you should follow before you start a texting
campaign:

3. 1. Establish procedures and policies that manage who
has the proper authorization to access personal
health information when texting. That person must
have a unique user ID, there have to be emergency
access procedures in place in case something goes
wrong, and you need to ensure there is automatic
logoff and message encryption – to features Eye
Care Leaders includes in all of its packages.
2. Establish audit and reporting controls for HIPAA-
compliant texting. This means that providers can
analyze, identify, and mitigate any risks that may
arise during texting.
3. Ensure that personal health information is not
changed or destroyed during the texting. Maintaining
correct health information is important and clearly
specified in HIPAA regulations.
4. Provide proof of identity before sending or receiving
any messages. In other words, the person getting
the personal health information must be who they
say they are. This can be accomplished with a
password or pin, a key or token, or a biometric
identifier like a fingerprint, voice pattern, or facial
recognition.
5. You must guard against unauthorized access to the
personal health information during transmission. The
data must be protected, and the message encrypted
during transmission. Again, any high-quality practice
management solution will include these features
automatically.
Make sure your texting campaign fully complies with
HIPAA rules
As you can clearly see, texting your patients can have huge benefits – you
get sky-high open rates, immediate delivery, and high engagement. If you
looking to confirm appointments, send directors, or send post-care
messages such as requests for a review, texting is the way to go.
That said, texting has to be approached carefully. HIPAA rules are no joke,
and if you run afoul of any of the legislation’s many intricate rules you and
your practice could be looking at massive fines, not to mention plenty of
bad press.

4. To learn more about initiating a text messaging component at your practice
that is fully compliant, contact Eye Care Leaders today, who can connect
you to an eye care practice management system that will work for you.