BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE course will guide healthcare counsel on measures for hospitals and physicians to ensure compliance and minimize liability when using patient portals and other electronic means to communicate protected health information (PHI). The panel will outline the legal risks with patient portal use and offer best practices for implementing effective policies to ensure HIPAA and regulatory compliance.

Faculty

Description

Many healthcare providers have established patient information portals to provide patients with online access to their patient records and meet quality improvement goals. Patient access to health information is one of the core objectives of meaningful use, which all Medicare providers are required to demonstrate.

While portals give patients access to information, they require providers to take measures to ensure the privacy and security of patient PHI. In addition to portals, providers' use of email and texting to communicate PHI raises HIPAA and other regulatory red flags.

Further, providers using third parties to manage portals must have business associate agreements that ensure compliance by the third-party associates.

Listen as our authoritative panel of healthcare counsel examines the legal and regulatory requirements and risks of using patient portals, online diagnostic services, email, texting, and other electronic communication for healthcare providers. The panel will offer strategies to ensure HIPAA compliance and minimize patient claims and government enforcement actions.

Outline

  1. Legal and regulatory requirements
  2. Legal pitfalls
  3. Strategies for compliance
    1. Policies and procedures
    2. Enforcement and monitoring
    3. Business associate agreements
    4. Training

Benefits

The panel will review these and other crucial issues:

  • What risks do hospitals and providers face when using patient portals and electronic means to communicate with patients and other healthcare providers?
  • What steps can healthcare providers take to protect patient privacy and ensure HIPAA compliance?
  • What are the primary considerations for healthcare provider counsel when developing and implementing policies regarding patient portals and electronic communication of PHI?