Medical billing and coding are vital processes in a medical practice, and often busy physicians struggle to find the time to do these. Being highly complex, medical coding and billing demands minute attention to detail. Many medical practices have started outsourcing these jobs to reliable service providers in the field. But how secure and confidential is your medical billing and coding that is outsourced? Needless to say, reputable medical coding firms with a flawless reputation and with considerable experience in providing these services will ensure security and confidentiality for the data they handle.
HIPAA Compliant Medical Billing and Coding
To ensure security for sensitive patient data, these companies strictly follow HIPAA regulations when providing medical billing and coding services. If the information leaks in any way, the company or the individual in charge of maintaining the records would be held responsible and they might have to face severe consequences. Therefore, whenever any healthcare institution takes the help of these medical billing companies, it is essential to check out whether they comply with the regulations of HIPAA.
Security Measures Adopted by Reliable Medical Billing Companies
- All patient information stays secure within their office premises since none of the medical billing/coding work leaves the office
- 24X7 surveillance by security personnel
- All external drives including floppy disk drives are disabled on the computers
- Staff members are not allowed to bring in any floppies, any electronic devices including laptops, PDA.
- No paper or written documents are allowed to be brought into the office or taken out
- Password protected computers
- Firewalls and antivirus software are installed on all computers, and virus definitions are updated daily
- Monthly backups of computer systems will be done and stored in a locked building. All lockers used for storage will be password protected.
- All employees have to sign a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement.
- 256 bit AES encryption method for all transferred files.
- Managerial procedures in place to guard data integrity, patient confidentiality, and document availability (Information Access Control and Access Authorization).
- To ensure all systems meet or exceed specified security requirements, technical evaluations are performed on a routine basis.
- All persons, administrators and staff, who have access to any sensitive information, patient records, or voice files, have the appropriate clearances and have signed confidentiality agreements.
- The entire workforce is trained on privacy, security, and confidentiality.
Accurate Medical Billing and Services for Maximum Reimbursement
When you have a trustworthy company as your partner, you not only benefit from HIPAA compliant security and confidentiality for your patient data, but also maximum reimbursement for your claims. Established medical billing and coding companies have professionals specialized in these processes to work for you. Outsource your medical billing and coding processes to a sincere service provider and enjoy the many benefits.
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