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3 Comments

  1. uberVU - social comments
    April 28, 2010 @ 7:03 am

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by drkkolmes: Email Tips for Clinicians: http://bit.ly/9JJrhs My new blog post. Information about security & social networking….

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  2. Jen
    September 9, 2014 @ 1:07 am

    Thank you for posting the information. I am trying to find out if I am HIPAA compliant if I were to have first time client’s download my intake packets from my website, and email them back to me completed with their PHI. I do have the business Hushmail and I talked to them about the encryption. They said it would be encrypted only if I use the security question/answer response with that person. My question is, would I still be in compliance if I were to post a disclaimer on my website the risks of sending back the completed forms as it would be unencrypted. They always have the option of printing the forms and bringing them with them to their first appointment or filling them out when they get there. Thank you for any feedback. Jen

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    • drkkolmes
      October 6, 2014 @ 9:39 am

      I would suggest you NOT have patients email completed forms back via unencrypted email. You would not be HIPAA compliant if you did that. I’d suggest clients bring them in, use U.S. postal mail, or create their own free hushmail account for the purpose of sending them back encrypted. Having clients waive rights to privacy is certainly one way to manage the risk on your end, but it is asking them to give up privacy on their end. We all make different choices with our practices, but if you are inclined to put patient privacy as your highest priority, then just have them bring them in or ONLY send back via their own encrypted hushmail account. If they don’t have an account with hushmail, the encryption only goes one way (unless they use a hush form, which at this time, does not allow attachments).

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