Medical transcription: HIPAA and HITECH compliance

HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, applies to medical transcription for protection of confidential personal health information of patients during the process of medical transcription. This data is especially vulnerable during the process of transmission. Now the HITECH act has improved and expanded on the concerns and issues raised by HIPAA

To ensure that confidential information is protected throughout the total medical transcription process the following measures need to be taken:

·       Assign responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of patient information to a person or group of persons

·       Assess security risks and identify the major threats to the security and privacy protection of health information.

·       A plan needs to be made to address physical security, personnel security, control of technical safety and security.

·       Confirming that the measures taken are adequate and effective

·       Developing strategies, procedures and guidelines for the use of personal computing devices like workstations and for ensuring mechanisms that allow limited access and locking the terminal when not in use for certain time.

·       Implement access controls like encryption, context based access, including role based or user based access.

·       Documenting all the measures taken to protect the confidentiality of patient information

To maintain confidentiality of patient information, measures need to be taken to address the issue at all levels:

·       People and processes

·       Infrastructure

·       Technology

While outsourcing the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility one of the main concerns is whether the medical transcription service provider understands the significance of HIPAA and takes adequate measures to ensure HIPAA compliance during the process of medical transcription.

TransDyne is a leading provider of outsourced medical transcription services, understands the importance of maintaining the security of confidential patient information. TransDyne ensures HIPAA and HITECH compliance during medical transcription by implementing the following measures:

Securing people and processes:  People and processes are secured by implementing the following:

1.     No sub-contractors: Work outsourced to TransDyne is executed in-house and no subcontractors are used.

2.     Inbuilt security routines: All applications and processes have inbuilt security measures like password changes, access audits and related exercises.

3.     Joint access: Most confidential databases can be accessed only by a combination of passwords of a minimum of two individuals.

4.     Restricted Internet and Email access: Unlimited access to Internet can lead to security breaches. Access is limited to a few limited sites.

5.     Legal Declarations: Declarations are signed by employees undertaking to maintain the security of data.

6.     Security audits: Frequent audits are carried out to ensure that all procedures are followed and are effective.

Securing Infrastructure:  Infrastructure is secured by the following means:

 

1.     Company owned and managed facilities

2.     Manned security

3.     Video surveillance

4.     No removable media

Securing Technology: Technology has been secured by use of security features like

1. All medical transcription related software applications are built in-house. 
2. Database based systems.
3. 128-bit data encryption
4. Multi-tiered application architecture,
5. Design level security safeguards, firewall protected networks
6. Sterilized e-mail servers
7. Denial of access procedures and
8. Multi-modal alerts.  

Apart from maintaining security standards that not only meet but also exceed HIPAA and HITECH requirements, TransDyne also offers medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use.

To benefit from outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.