What is the HITECH Act?
Change can be stressful and, in the case of setting off certified EHR systems, expensive. Many HIPAA covered entities were hesitant to adopt an electronic PHI solution. To change this, the HITECH Act included large financial incentives to covered entities who adopted and meaningfully used such technology. As electronic health record (EHR) technology continues to
What is the Breach Notification Rule?
HHS developed the Breach Notification Rule as an addition to HIPAA to ensure covered entities and business associates take responsibility for and inform patients of breaches to their protected health information. In this article, we’ll go over what your team needs to know to help you ensure compliance. To learn more about the Privacy Rule,
What is the Security Rule
Guarding patient protected health information is a mandatory aspect of healthcare today. HIPAA originally set forth to regulate how and when medical information can be disclosed, but there were gaps. To fill these gaps, HHS developed a series of additional rules. The Security Rule is one of them. If you’d like to learn more about
May 2022 Product Release Notes
Our goal at ChartRequest is to make the exchange of PHI quick and easy. We aim to break down data silos in healthcare by developing the fastest, most secure software solution possible. We hope you’re excited about what we have in store. Check out our latest updates to the ChartRequest platform. New Platform Features
What is the Privacy Rule
The Privacy Rule was one of the first examples of legislation in the United States that enhanced patient rights. This rule is the first addition to HIPAA, and it continues to shape how medical records are handled. In this post, we will cover what you need to know to be compliant with the Privacy Rule.
Is Texting Medical Records HIPAA Compliant?
Texting is fast, easy, and convenient. According to Statista, Americans sent 2,200 billion text messages in the United States in 2020. It’s a great way to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues that can help convey all sorts of information. With this in mind, it’s fair to ask what role texting should play
2022 Changes to the 21st Century Cures Act
What is the 21st Century Cures Act? Are you ready for the 2022 regulatory deadlines for the 21st Century Cures Act approaching? To protect yourself, your organization, your staff, and your patients, it’s essential that you prepare for continued compliance. Let’s start with the basics before we dive into what you need to know. In
Is Mailing Medical Records HIPAA Compliant?
Of all the methods of medical records release, none pass the records through more hands than shipping via delivery services. It is, of course, illegal for anybody but the recipient to tamper with mail. So is mail a safe method of medical records exchange? Is mailing medical records HIPAA compliant? HIPAA is a complicated set
Is Faxing Medical Records HIPAA Compliant?
As fax machines grow increasingly outdated, it seems the healthcare industry is one of the few that still uses them. They’re one of the more basic ways to maintain HIPAA compliance because there’s less gray area, but there are tradeoffs. In this article, we’ll cover some of the pros and cons of using fax machines
Is Emailing Medical Records HIPAA Compliant?
There are plenty of ways to exchange protected health information, but is email one of them? It’s more complicated than a simple yes or no, there are several factors at play. With the high costs of HIPAA violations, it’s important to be absolutely sure that your organization is using email compliantly. Is email HIPAA compliant?
How to Insource Medical Records Exchange with Software
Why do you need to worry about releasing medical records? Medical records contain personal information that hackers and identity thieves want. As such, it is the responsibility of all who interact with protected health information (PHI) to make sure it’s secure. The regulations set by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the
Challenges of Setting Up Medical Records Exchange Software
Integrating with your EHR system Electronic health records (EHR) revolutionized health information management (HIM). Medical professionals were no longer required to keep filing cabinets filled with paper records for every single visit. Although the financial incentives for EHR adoption outlined in the HITECH Act led to almost every medical practice in the United States making
How Centralizing Medical Records Exchange Affects Patients
Simplify the request process with ChartRequest Whether you choose to fulfill medical records requests in-house or allow our team of HIPAA experts to handle them for you, your users will be using the same interface to submit requests. Like our care coordination interface for healthcare professionals, we offer unique interfaces for both patients and legal
How to Train your Medical Staff to Use ChartRequest
No great mind is developed in a vacuum. Socrates taught Plato, Plato taught Aristotle, and Aristotle passed his knowledge on to Alexander the Great. Before your medical staff can help build your organization, they must learn from you. Every great teacher began a student To adequately train your staff to handle the HIPAA-compliant release of
What are the Key Administrative Features of ChartRequest?
Signing up for a ChartRequest account is quick and easy, but there are a few steps you should take before releasing medical records. This article will cover some of the key administrative features of ChartRequest so you can ensure your organizational information is always accurate. Edit your organization’s information During the onboarding process, you must
January 2022 Product Release Notes
Our goal at ChartRequest is to make the exchange of PHI quick and easy. We aim to break down data silos in healthcare by developing the fastest, most secure software solution possible. We hope you’re excited about what we have in store. Check out our latest updates to the ChartRequest platform. Custodian Visibility Improvements •
Preparing to Insource the Release of Information
Insourcing the release of information means processing medical records requests using your own team. Our ROI solution makes it easy for your medical staff to hit the ground running with health information exchange and care coordination. Determine the ROI needs of your organization Healthcare organizations can vary wildly from the smallest private practices to the
The Complete Guide to Hiring and Retaining Medical Staff
Why is there a staffing shortage? When the COVID-19 pandemic began ravaging the globe in March 2020, few anticipated that we’d still be struggling in 2022. When it became clear that the lockdown wasn’t stopping the virus, fewer people were willing to work in higher-risk jobs. There’s likely no riskier industry when it comes to
How to Improve Medical Staff Retention
Medical staff worldwide have worked especially hard since the beginning of the pandemic, enduring brutal hours and unflinching urgency. Unfortunately, the healthcare industry has the second-highest rate of employee turnover behind hospitality. Your medical staff is invaluable From huge hospitals to small practices, healthcare facilities of all sizes depend on their staff for all the
DECEMBER 2021 PRODUCT RELEASE NOTES PART 2
Our goal at ChartRequest is to make the exchange of PHI quick and easy. We believe in quality over quantity, so we have some updates today that didn’t quite make it in our larger update earlier this week. Check out our latest updates to the ChartRequest platform. “No Radiology Records” Users can now select “No
Hiring New Staff vs Outsourcing the Release of Information
Health information exchange is an essential part of running a healthcare practice. U.S. laws require healthcare providers to release medical records to authorized individuals. These laws also penalize delays and unsafe methods of exchange. Should your healthcare facility hire new staff to handle protected health information or adopt a medical records exchange software? The costs
December 2021 Product Release Notes
Our goal at ChartRequest is to make the exchange of PHI quick and easy. We aim to break down data silos in healthcare by developing the fastest, most secure software solution possible. We hope you’re excited about what we have in store. Check out our latest updates to the ChartRequest platform. Trusted Provider Network
The Complete Guide to Electronic Health Records for Healthcare Providers
Every time someone goes to a doctor’s appointment, the healthcare provider creates and stores a record for later review. On the patient side, they are easy to forget. But for healthcare providers, front desk staff, and hospital administrators, handling electronic health records can be a major part of the job. Table of Contents What are
What is the Business Associate Agreement?
Healthcare providers save about half a million lives every year, but they do not do this alone. They work with all sorts of different professionals and tools to keep the various cogs turning. With the importance of protecting patients’ personally identifiable information, it’s no surprise that the Business Associate Agreement came to be. What is
What are Data Silos?
Named after the silos that keep grain safe from the outside world, data silos, also known as information silos, are large collections of information that can only be retrieved and viewed by authorized individuals. In healthcare, data silos generally refer to incompatible electronic health record (EHR) systems. Without data integration capabilities, it becomes significantly harder
Why is there a Paper Shortage?
History credits the invention of paper to Cai Lun, a Han dynasty court official, in the year 105. After watching how bees and wasps build their hives, he used plant fibers and rags to form the first sheets. Today, paper companies churn out over 300 million tons of paper annually. Yet, this is still not
HIPAA and the HITECH Act
HIPAA compliance is the most important part of handling protected health information. This law legally binds covered entities and their business associates to follow regulations when handling protected medical information. But what does HIPAA compliance involve? Table of Contents What is HIPAA? What are covered entities? The Privacy Rule The Security Rule The Breach Notification
The Lawyer’s Guide to Medical Records
Medical records exchange can be a complicated, burdensome process, even for healthcare professionals. This goes doubly so for people who are not used to how the healthcare system works. Legal professionals seeking to retrieve medical records for a case must adhere to HIPAA regulations just like healthcare providers. But where do you start? Table of
How to correct medical records
Healthcare providers and staff work hard every day to provide the best care possible, but nobody is perfect. Electronic health record (EHR) systems have made recording medical information easier than ever. Unfortunately, the copy and paste capabilities of EHRs have also made recurring mistakes more common. Thanks to the sheer number of EHRs at most
How do Subpoenas for Medical Records Work?
When medical records contain the key to winning a case, they can become key evidence in court. To get them, legal professionals can send a subpoena to a healthcare facility requesting a copy of the records. If you are a patient in this situation, you may be wondering what exactly this entails. While your medical
Etiquette for Requesting Electronic Health Records
In the modern age, everything moves at lightning speed. Ever since telegraph hand operators started transmitting messages at a then-blistering 25-40 words per minute, our technology has improved by leaps and bounds. In 1924, a fax machine could transmit a single sheet of paper in about 6 minutes, and today a standard email can send
Are Fax Machines Necessary for Medical Records?
For most people, there is nothing a fax machine can do that a computer with an internet connection can’t do faster. Despite the improvements to the fax machine’s speed and capabilities over decades of development, most are likely collecting dust. In its day though, the facsimile machine was groundbreaking technology. Samuel Morse sent the first
Medical Record Retention and Destruction
Requesting medical records is a complicated process, and requesting old records can be especially frustrating. It‘s frustrating to submit a request and wait weeks for a response, only to hear that the records are unavailable. This is especially true when discarded records are relevant to current treatment. Healthcare providers must retain medical records by law,
What are electronic health records?
Electronic health records (EHRs) are a paperless method of health information management (HIM). The EHR format is designed to be easily shared between healthcare providers, so EHRs include information from every clinician who has taken part in the patient’s care. If kept on an EHR database, any authorized healthcare staff can access the records in
How to Request your Medical Records
In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) gave patients the right to obtain copies of most of their medical records. Since then, with the advent of new technology designed to put the power into patient hands, it’s easier than ever to request medical records for a personal health record (PHR). Patients no
Medical Records and Forms for Patients
Are you a patient wondering, “How can I get my medical records quickly?” Perhaps you’re a parent trying to figure out the best way to get a doctor’s signature on a sports form for your child. Or maybe you’re an employee looking for a hassle-free way to get a disability form. In all of these
Reduce Patient Leakage with Care Coordination Software
When a patient needs specialized care from multiple healthcare providers, medical records are integral to ensuring a positive patient experience. With the frequently hectic and urgent nature of providing healthcare services, easy access to patient health information is invaluable. To help provide the highest-quality care possible, care coordination is key. What is care coordination? Care
8 Tips to Improve the Patient Experience
Healthcare facilities, like restaurants and retail stores, are dependent on the good reviews and repeat business that comes with providing people the best patient experience possible. Word of mouth advertising and online reviews drive new patient acquisition, especially in places with heavy competition. Accepting new patients is important for a medical practice, as is retaining
What are hackers doing with your medical records?
Electronic health information is at constant risk of attack by hackers worldwide hoping to make a profit. Whether the hacker uses ransomware to lock up data until the facility makes a cryptocurrency exchange or they sell the information on the black market, cybercriminals stand to make a lot of money by stealing the electronic version
Top 10 Largest Medical Malpractice Settlements
Every patient deserves a high quality of medical care when they need treatment. In some nightmarish cases though, doctors make irreversible medical mistakes. This can cause horrible damages such as heart attack, brain injury, blood clots, or wrongful death. A 2016 study by Johns Hopkins estimated that preventable medical errors cause over 250,000 deaths annually
The ROI Solution for Federally Qualified Health Centers
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) are one of the most important safety nets in the United States healthcare system. By offering treatment regardless of patients’ ability to pay or their lack of insurance, the healthcare providers and support staff at FQHCs help keep underprivileged communities healthy. Between the increasing rate of patients without adequate insurance
Top Medical Imaging Records Sharing Companies
Medical imaging systems offer healthcare providers invaluable insight regarding internal issues without requiring invasive techniques. Whether you’re a patient in need of an old x-ray or a referring physician trying to share patient imaging records with a specialist, you need your health records requests fulfilled as quickly as possible. In the past, healthcare providers had
Reasons to Build a Personal Health Record
Requesting your medical records is oftentimes a complex, burdensome process. Because your protected health information (PHI) is highly sensitive, there are strict regulations regarding who may release it, who can access it, and under which circumstances it can be released. As outlined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a healthcare provider that
Acuity Eye Group Sees Value in ChartRequest’s ROI Solution
With an extensive list of over 50 locations across southern and central California, Acuity Eye Group, a physician-owned and vertically integrated ophthalmology provider, has established itself as the largest ophthalmology group in the Western USA. Starting in November 2005 as a single retina practice in Pasadena, they now employ over 100 ophthalmologists and optometrists with
Five Reasons Law Firms Outsource Medical Records Retrieval
Medical records retrieval is a complicated and time-consuming process that often requires additional action to ensure a timely return. When you are gathering medical documentation for your law firm, the last thing you want to do is get stuck waiting. Whether you retrieve medical charts for your firm personally or delegate the task to your
Can Bacteriophage Prevent a Superbug Pandemic?
After a year defined by a worldwide pandemic, a new generation witnessed the havoc a contagion can wreak. Unfortunately, the future of public health may hold more grim chapters. Drug-resistant bacteria are a universal concern, as over 700,000 people die each year from previously curable infections and diseases. If antibiotic-resistant infections go unchecked, issues as
HIPAA Compliance for Remote ROI Staff
For many, adjusting to remote work has been a challenge. It involves adapting to a new routine and learning to use new programs to aid in collaboration and communication. Health information managers (HIM) and other remote release of information (ROI) staff members work with patient data every day. It’s essential for them to protect it.
Retrieving your Client’s Medical Records
Seven Strategies for Success It’s an essential step towards building your case – but it’s oftentimes the most burdensome. For lawyers and attorneys, retrieving your client’s medical records can be a lengthy and complicated process. Whether your client suffered an injury at work, in a motor vehicle accident, or is pursuing a malpractice lawsuit, you
Prepare for the 2021 Proposed HIPAA Changes
Since the introduction of HIPAA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has taken care to ensure its rules and regulations keep up with new technologies and practices. What you need to know The deadline has passed for comments regarding the proposed changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The U.S.
Medical Records Retrieval for Lawyers
Unburden your in-house staff with our medical data retrieval services for lawyers.
HIPAA and the HITECH Act 101
Your health records are protected under HIPAA and the HITECH Act. Here’s what you need to know about your rights regarding the privacy and security of your PHI.
7 Common Reasons for a Release of Information
From seeing a specialist to applying for life insurance, here are 7 common reasons you might need to fill out a release of information form. There are several common reasons for a release of information, including for medical treatment purposes, medical billing, insurance billing, health studies, legal proceedings, and marketing purposes. Sometimes a third party
The 5 Phases of the Release of Information Process
The release of information process contains more than 40 steps that can be divided into five phases. Here’s a closer look at what happens during each stage.
The Release of Information Workflow with ChartRequest
Find out how the ChartRequest release of information platform can help you streamline your ROI workflows. See how quickly and easily it can be implemented.
HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Storage: What You Need to Know
Storing PHI in the cloud? Make sure the cloud is HIPAA compliant and observe these Security Rule, Privacy Rule, and Breach Notification Rule considerations.
Online Bill Payment and COVID-19
Cash and in-person billing can promote the spread of the coronavirus. Learn how online bill payment during the ROI process can protect your staff and requestors.
Can You Get the Coronavirus From Contaminated Surfaces?
The coronavirus can last for up to 96 hours on certain surfaces including screens and paper. Learn how to protect your staff and requestors against COVID-19.
What Is Health Information Exchange?
Health information exchange occurs when healthcare providers securely share PHI online. Learn how HIE works, what the benefits are and how HIE systems protect PHI.
Why Mailing Medical Records Jeopardizes Your Medical Data Security
The demand for medical records isn’t decreasing anytime soon. According to a recent study by Pew Research Center, hospital and clinic executives see an increasing demand for accurate and secure medical records exchange. How is your healthcare organization handling the release of this critical information? The fact is, many healthcare organizations will resort to mailing
Checklist for Retiring Physicians
Let ChartRequest Help You With Your Retirement Physicians spend their entire career working to care for their patients as a doctor and now as you are getting ready to retire and spend time with your loved ones or have planned out of a country trip or fulfill your long lost dreams. Physicians who are looking
Healthcare Fax: Taking Outdated (and Dangerous) Technology out of Healthcare Practices
If you were buying a cell phone, you most likely wouldn’t go with the oldest model available. You also wouldn’t let your dentist pull a tooth simply because you have a cavity. And you certainly wouldn’t spend 11 days on a boat to get to England when you could fly there in a matter of
ChartRequest Recognized on Inc. 5000 List
ChartRequest is proud to be recognized on the Inc. 5000 List Inc. Magazine ranked MyHealth, the parent company of ChartRequest, 184th on its 38th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment—
User Management Enhancements
We are proud to announce the release of new user management enhancements. Now you have even more control over how your team members access and use ChartRequest, our release of information platform.
3 Ways to Mitigate Breach Risk
Serving aboard a nuclear powered, fast-attack submarine in the early 90’s, we once conducted naval war games with surface fleets of several nations off the coast of Portugal. On one operation, our mission was to hunt and “destroy” an aircraft carrier (a rather large target), while avoiding anti-submarine warfare (ASW) tactics deployed by “enemy” aircraft
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
There are several approaches to releasing Protected Health Information (PHI). Methods are often driven by the size or the specific needs to the organization. Some providers have set up workflows, got them underway some time ago, and they sort of just worked. Any pain revealed in the process may not be immediately evident, or perhaps