Getting Medical Questions Answered – Correctly and without Delay

A doctors’ answering service needs to get medical questions answered. It is not a trouble-free task.

The answering service staff has to be HIPAA compliant. There can be no compromise on this issue.

HIPAA stands for Health Information Portability and Accountability Act already a law in force.

Uniform national standards for electronic transmission of health data has been put into place to regulate health information of individuals. A requirement that increases the efficacy of computer based exchange of health care data.

It is not just hospitals, insurance providers, and health care service providers and clearing houses that are affected by the provisions of HIPAA, even medical answering service is covered by the Act. The reason is apparent. A medical answering service engages in electronic transactions.

Today a healthcare answering service does multifarious tasks. Apart from offering telephonic help and service on behalf of a medical practitioner, when he or she is unavailable, the staff also provides medical advice and gets medical questions answered to patients.

In short, a physician answering service is a link between doctors and patients. Such an occupation brings forth many challenges. One of the main challenges for the staff is to fulfill privacy objectives. These include:

•    Not disclosing any health information without the individual’s (patient’s) explicit consent or permission.
•    Implementing improvement in data quality in registration systems
•    Ensuring security while performing any administrative tasks.  

Doctors take up the assistance of an answering service for a simple reason. Since it is difficult to keep in touch with all the patients 24 x 7 they need assistance.

The answering services, in order to provide the best help, will need many details from their clients such as:

•    Contact numbers like cell phone and home contact numbers
•    Patient information database
•    A log of daily schedule

To get all medical questions answered, the staff must analyze and study patient history and must have all details regarding the patient’s illness. Without this it is not possible to provide proper care during emergencies.

The tele-calling employees who handle doctors’ calls are trained and well-informed about medical terminologies and medical procedures. Most important of all, they do business because they have HIPAA certification. Without this requirement they cannot get medical questions answered.

Maintaining doctor-patient relationship is vital and a key reason why doctors subscribe to answering services. Doctors need assurance that patients’ well-being is taken care of when they are busy with more important tasks or are away.

Fortunately, doctors’ answering service is fulfilling this very important need.