HIPAA Compliant Print & Mail

Yes. You may legally mail healthcare documents to patients and third parties like insurance agencies. It is not a HIPAA violation, and the law allows you to ship these mailers as long as you do it securely and privately. 

Use Certified Mail or Priority Mail options to get a signature from the recipient on delivery. It can serve as proof of safe mailing and delivery if the patient denies receipt. Additionally, these shipping options ensure only the intended patients or their authorized agents get their documents. 

You should also follow the basic safety measures, like

• Use thick and non-transparent envelopes for transit. They ensure carriers or other people who handle mail cannot view the contents. Sturdy envelopes also guarantee that your documents do not come out of the covers or become visible if there is a tear during the shipping journey. 
• Avoid using windowed envelopes unless it shows the mailing address only. 
• Verify mailing lists before shipping crucial documents to them. 
• Transmit PHI only through reputable courier companies like USPS, FedEx, DHL, and UPS. HIPAA restricts providers from using other carriers to send healthcare documents. 

No. USPS Marketing Mail is not HIPAA compliant because organizations usually send these items in bulk to get postal discounts. This mailing service is for shipping promotional items that do not contain PHI.

It is because USPS Marketing Mail does not have fixed delivery estimates. The postal services might take weeks to deliver your items to their destinations. During the transit, the carrier might lose the mailers or misplace them, resulting in a potential data breach. Providers might have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in such cases, making it a legal requirement to avoid USPS Marketing Mail for HIPAA mailings. 

If your mailers have PHI content, you must at least use First-Class Mail as a minimum requirement. It allows healthcare providers to send their items within two to five business days securely and effectively! 

The First-Class Mail service does not offer USPS tracking or delivery confirmation. But you can make up for it using the Certified mailing option. 

Certified and Registered Mail helps you add these features to your mailings and make them more secure. Alternatively, you can choose Priority Mail to improve your items’ safety and ensure they reach the recipients quickly.

Four HIPAA compliances affect patients directly, and they are 

• Health data security– Healthcare providers must protect their patients’ data safety by drafting procedures to keep it away from hackers and fraud. Only allowing authorized staff to compile and manage patient data is essential, primarily as identity thefts and breaches increase daily. Moreover, they should only use HIPAA-compliant software programs and vendors to maintain a secure network. 
• Healthcare data breach notifications– Providers are accountable for informing the concerned authorities if there is a data breach, putting patient data at risk. The infringement’s size or impact does not matter in this case. Organizations must immediately take action and send a notification to prevent further complications. They might need to pay a fine, but hiding these situations can get them into more trouble and legal action. 
• Data privacy– Patients might be willing to share sensitive information with their healthcare providers. But that does not empower the hospital or clinic to share the data with external parties that are not HIPAA-compliant or can misuse it. Data privacy is another primary requirement under HIPAA that organizations cannot afford to forego.  
• Patient rights over their healthcare data– Patients can access their details in a management system whenever they want. The Privacy Rule gives individuals the legal right to view and get copies of their medical and other records upon request. All health plans, healthcare providers, and other covered entities must help patients with it and provide them with the necessary information within a specified time.

SOC (Service Organization Control) 2 is an auditing process to measure how providers manage their patient data according to HIPAA rules. The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) developed this certification to evaluate healthcare providers and related entities based on

• Data availability.
• Security. 
• Confidentiality.
• Integrity. 
• Privacy. 
• Processing. 

SOC-2 is a voluntary standard, and organizations can tailor the reports according to their unique internal and external data management requirements! Depending on their specific business functions, they can design controls to comply with one or more trust and security principles under HIPAA.

There are two SOC-2 report types, including

• Type 1- describes the healthcare organization’s systems and how securely it complies with the relevant standards or principles to become HIPAA compliant. 
• Type 2- mentions the systems’ operational efficiency. 

All healthcare providers and associated organizations have a SOC-2 compliance checklist, including

• Access controls– physical and practical restrictions to prevent unauthorized access to PHI. 
• System operations– safety controls to monitor current practices, spot deviations from HIPAA and organization functionalities, and resolve them. 
• Change management– processes to manage IT system changes and procedures to prevent unauthorized personnel from modifying them.
• Mitigating risk– methods that allow healthcare institutions to detect risks in advance, take action, and mitigate them. 

Thus, the SOC-2 certification under HIPAA helps organizations keep up with compliance standards and improves efficiency. 

HIPAA is not only about physical files or paper-based records containing patient data. Many people are unaware that HIPAA applies to Electronically Protected Health Information (ePHI)—with healthcare IT on the rise today.

IT in the health industry is short for Information Technology. It covers all healthcare data compilation, transmission, and management activities providers undertake online. Institutions must use HIPAA IT-compliance systems only to receive, store, share, and alter ePHI. 

Anything that comes in contact with ePHI must follow specific security and privacy standards to ensure the provider follows the HIPAA regulations properly. 

Consider the use of excel files or spreadsheets as an example to understand HIPAA IT better. Typically, healthcare providers may draft many such files to manage their internal operations, handle staffing, and overlook physician management. Though they might think these records do not need to be HIPAA-compliant, they are wrong. It also consists of PHI to some extent, and institutions should install the essential safeguards to protect this electronic data. 

Similarly, they must ensure to send emails or online messages using safe systems to patients to avoid breaching HIPAA IT regulations. 

Not all direct mail printing vendors have the appropriate data safety and protection measures. These printers might only agree to produce flyers, brochures, postcards, promotional materials, standees, etc., that do not comprise PHI. Hence, they do not need an in-built security system because they don’t cater to healthcare providers. 

HIPAA-compliant printers use features like data encryption, a built-in firewall, and frequent firmware updates to keep up with the latest security loopholes. They might also have a software program to spot intrusions before a breach occurs and stop them. 

For example, PostGrid’s HIPAA-compliant direct mail services offer in-built compliance to help healthcare organizations and related entities draft and send items securely. 

Yes. HIPAA applies to all promotional activities, including email marketing campaigns, direct mail advertising, telemarketing, etc. Many hospitals, clinics, test centers, etc., confuse healthcare operations or treatment with marketing communications. 

The reason is that the overlap between these correspondence activities is inevitable. For instance, health plans and providers often advise patients to buy specific services or health-related products while treating them. Similarly, health insurance agencies explaining its features to patients come under marketing and need them to follow the HIPAA rules. 

Please note that you may need the patient’s authorization before using their PHI or disclosing it to third parties in case of some marketing communications.

Yes, we can help you with some examples that give you a deeper understanding of HIPAA violations. 

1. One mistake most organizations make is failing to conduct an organizational-level risk analysis- This prevents them from detecting risks and identifying breaches at the desired time. It compromises the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of PHI. 
2. Another example is not signing a business associate agreement with vendors. Choosing a HIPAA-compliant direct mail vendor like PostGrid is only step one. Entering into a legally-binding contract that ensures your data security is the second and most crucial requirement providers must fulfill. 
3. Not cleansing and updating your patient database from time to time can also result in a HIPAA violation. With millions of Americans moving yearly, chances are your records get outdated now and then. Try conducting a CASS and NCOA verification to ensure you have the correct delivery addresses. Otherwise, you might print and mail sensitive health documents to incorrect destinations, increasing the possibility of PHI falling into the wrong hands. Hence, PostGrid offers address validation capabilities to providers to overcome this challenge and mail accurately!
4. A registered doctor or nurse posting pictures of their patient on social media (even if they did not mention the name) can trigger a HIPAA violation. Someone over the internet can identify the patient seeing the image, making it a breach of their security. 
5. A healthcare worker’s lost phone or laptop may lead to unauthorized access. The HIPAA regulations and rules require organizations to ensure their devices are always password-protected. Moreover, they should not leave their devices unattended after logging in and use data encryption. 

If you operate a healthcare facility, it is hard to say what comes under HIPAA violations. A business requiring you to prove you took a vaccination before allowing entry is not a HIPAA violation. They own the premises and reserve the right to deny access unless you produce the necessary documents or ID. 

Furthermore, your employer asking you to show a vaccination certificate or record before hiring you or letting you visit the workplace is not a violation. It also has nothing to do with HIPAA compliance because it is an internal issue, and the data does not count as PHI. 

Yes. Local, county and state health facilities that come under the definition of a covered entity must comply with the Privacy Rule. 

For example, the Medicaid programs for specific states are covered entities and follow all the HIPAA regulations the same way as other hospitals or providers. 

Many health departments operate public healthcare clinics and other facilities. The law treats them as covered entities if they store, transmit, or manage PHI like other providers.

These departments and other providers can use several tools to decide if they come under the covered entity definition. They must complete their job of taking these tests and following the relevant rules to avoid penalties.