What Is a HIPAA Software?
In the healthcare industry, the privacy of the patients’ data is essential. HIPAA is the security standard. Any software that has access to the patients’ data, used by a clinic or other medial organization, must be HIPAA compliant. A HIPAA software conforms with all the rules established by the standard. In the case of CRM, every software that work with the patients’ data, like the appointment reminder software, needs to be compliant.
Nowadays, the importance of data privacy has grown exponentially. Companies from all industries are obliged to keep the data of their customers safe. Because the data offered by patients in the medical industry is so complete, the security measures must be strict as well.
Many infractions can occur by using your patients’ data. Your medical organization must always use HIPAA software to prevent the theft of data. The software apps that require compliance, and your organizations may use, are chat apps, could storage and host services.
The best solution for medical organizations is CRM. There are many different options on the internet, but only a few of them specialize in the healthcare industry. By using this type of software, you can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your business.
How Can a CRM Be HIPAA Software?
CRM programs are intricate pieces of software that offer many different functions. Fortunately, not all of them have any tangent with the patients’ data. So, the only parts that need to be HIPAA compliant are those that may encounter this type of data. A live chat, for example, can be used to share the data of a patient. Medics may need to share this data from one to another. The live chat must be HIPAA compliant to make the transfer secure. An appointment reminder software also falls into this category.
Most of the CRMs that specialize in the healthcare industry also offer the necessary solutions for your organization to become HIPAA compliant. The most common method is to undergo regular evaluation to ensure the continuity of the compliance. By doing that, the CRM relieves your organization from the effort needed to undergo the process yourself.
Although the HIPAA compliant features are necessary and mandatory, the usefulness of a CRM does not stop there. The top ones use the best technology. They offer a vast array of functions that will massively decrease the effort required by your organization to keep a stable functionality. The efficiency of your clinic will also rise, and the financial returns will increase as well.
The Importance of a CRM in the Medical Industry!
To understand the importance of CRM, you need to know the main functions that it has, as well as the benefits that they offer. Apart from the HIPAA software, there are five main functions:
- Medical payment processing. CRMs can function as a payment processor, and bring different solutions to make the payment process more convenient. Your clients and your staff will have a more relaxed time. Your team will manage invoices easier. And your clients will be able to pay much faster and easier.
- Patient marketing tools. These tools can differ from a CRM to another. But the most popular ones are the electronic signatures and advanced metrics. The first one will increase the convenience of your patients, and the second one will offer you better insight. Both of them will help you market your clinic in a better way.
- Operations and management. This part of CRMs has the role of increasing the productivity of your crew. The most popular method is through calling and communication management software. This type of software will help with internal communication as well as the external one. Your team will coordinate better. And the efficiency of the patients’ calls will increase.
- Calendar integration. The appointments can be integrated with different calendars to make it easier for your crew to manage a stable schedule. Most CRMs offer the possibility to control every assignment from a central location.
- Patient support. The best option that a CRM can offer is a branded portal. It’s similar to a website were your patients can enter and contact your clinic directly. This type of portal can have different patient support methods. For example, it can have a FAQ section as well as a ticket-based system. Or it can have only a phone-based solution.
Does Your CRM Have an Appointment Reminder Software?
The most crucial function that the calendar integration part of a CRM needs to have is an appointment reminder software. Without it, the benefits of this part will decrease by half. Medics have a lot of critical tasks they need to take complete. For them, it is easy to forget less vital information like the number and time of appointments. An appointment reminder software is mandatory to prevent these situations.
For your patients, daily life can be full of tasks as well, and it should not be a surprise that many of them forget about their appointments as well. Any CRM needs to consider this and include methods that can remind them about it. The reminder will ensure that more of your patients attend their appointments. So, your clinic will be able to help more people and increase its revenue at the same time.
The software can use three main methods as a method to remind your crew and your patients about an appointment:
- E-mail. This method is the most used one because it only requires the e-mail address of your patients. But its disadvantage is the lower effectiveness. There are still many people that do not access their e-mails on the phone.
- SMS. The effectiveness of this method is much higher than the e-mail. But it requires your clinic to ask for your patients’ phone number. So, the software must also be HIPAA compliant to ensure that the information is safe and secure.
- Phone Call. It is similar to the SMS method. It requires more effort from your clinic because you will need a crew member to make the calls. But your patients will feel the importance that they get from your clinic and are more likely to become more faithful to your organization. So, the extra effort will increase the returns.