If you are part of the medical community, you know you must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. In part, the act says that any communication of sensitive patient health information must be transmitted in a secure fashion, and only to those authorized to receive it.

But HIPAA doesn’t stop with you, the health care provider; it also requires anyone with whom you share private patient health information to be covered by you as well. That means not only other doctors, hospitals or insurance companies who are themselves covered by HIPAA; it can also mean voice mail and email providers, and, not surprisingly, telephone answering services.

Hastings is well placed to help you comply with HIPAA. We not only help you protect the privacy of your patients and their health information; we can help you care for your patients in a more secure and efficient manner.

Hastings has served the healthcare community since its inception in 1948, and the staff at Hastings (our Hastings Humans) are trained and prepared to operate in a manner that meet your HIPAA requirements.

Further, if you need secure email delivery of your messages, Hastings offers TLS-based message delivery. TLS is a messaging standard that allows your messages to be delivered from Hastings servers to TLS-compliant servers (such as TLS-enhanced Microsoft Exchange servers) through a secure, encrypted channel.

To access faxes in a secure manner, Hastings offers password protected fax mail. With Hastings Fax Mail service, your faxes arrive on our server, where they stay until you are ready to retrieve them. Then you print your faxes by entering a password from your own fax machine. Or you can view and retrieve your faxes wherever you are by accessing a secure website Hastings maintains for you, or by having the fax document securely emailed to you.

To demonstrate your compliance with HIPAA, Hastings also provides a Business Associate Agreement. When completed, the agreement serves as an indication that you are working with Hastings in a manner consistent with the privacy policies required by HIPAA. If you are using Hastings, we suggest you keep a signed copy of the agreement on file, in the event you need to demonstrate you are acting in accordance with the HIPAA.

While we can provide you with tools and services to help you comply with HIPAA, Hastings doesn’t offer advice or guidance on what you need to do to comply. For more information on HIPAA specifics, you should visit the HIPAA home page, or consult with your attorney.