Preparing for the end of the temporary HIPAA enforcement relaxations
Aesthetic business owners need to be prepared for the upcoming termination of the COVID public emergency
As the COVID-19 pandemic became a widespread pandemic across the US in late March/early April, one of the biggest announcement to capture the headlines in healthcare was the OCR’s decision to temporarily relax the penalization of HIPAA violations. Due to the overnight necessity that telehealth came to possess, OCR and HHS sought to ensure that every patient would have access to their good faith exams and treatment as the country began to go into lockdown.
As we enter into the summer months of 2020, and most states have allowed aesthetic practices to reopen their doors, now is the time to begin looking ahead to the inevitable reality that will come sooner rather than later: these temporary HIPAA relaxations will have an end date. As a small business owner, now is the time to reassess the potential penalties and pitfalls your plastic surgery practice or medical spa could endure once the COVID-19 public health emergency concludes.
OCR will exercise its enforcement discretion and will not impose penalties for noncompliance with the regulatory requirements under the HIPAA Rules against covered health care providers in connection with the good faith provision of telehealth during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency.
HIPAA ENFORCEMENT WAS NEVER LIFTED
Let’s be clear: the assumption that this announcement by OCR and HHS in April was some sort of an acquiesce to healthcare practices to simply throw HIPAA out the window is, sadly, far from the truth. In fact, the exception has always been communicated with very deliberate clauses and descriptors that point out OCR is simply exercising its enforcement discretion to not impose penalties for noncompliance with the HIPAA rules.
Enforcement will still apply to certain situations, however, and aesthetic business owners need to ensure that they are crystal clear on which scenarios will be enforced, and which will not be. For example, penalties can still be imposed for the use of public-facing video communication apps such as Facebook Live, Twitch and TikTok.
It is highly recommend that you consult your HIPAA Compliance Officer, or your society, to ensure you fully understand the dos and don’ts of this allowance.
THE EXPIRATION DATE IS GETTING CLOSER
With every discretionary announcement that OCR and HHS have made, they have been very clear in reminding the industry that this is, indeed, temporary; and that these violations will resume being penalized once the COVID-19 public health emergency has concluded. The industry is getting closer and closer to the official end of the public health emergency. There are many aesthetic practices today who are still using non-HIPAA secure video communication tools such as FaceTime. This is unnecessarily risky at this point: Symplast began offering a stand-alone telehealth software to all plastic surgery practices and medical spas at no cost, with no hidden fees and no credit card required, for the first two months.
For those practices who have yet to incorporate a HIPAA secure telemedicine solution into their practice, there is absolutely no reason why they should not try out the Symplast telehealth offering for free. The last thing you want to do is add more confusion and frustration to your staff and patients by getting caught by surprise when the enforcement penalties return to normal.
THERE IS STILL A LOT OF AMBIGUITY
There are a number of scenarios that are not directly addressed with the OCR announcements, leaving plastic surgeons and medical spa owners with the daunting task of having to make dangerous assumptions. These decisions and actions can have very, very costly consequences down the line.
A few examples of situations that are not specifically mentioned as being included in the non-enforcement, and thus must be considered as still in place and enforceable, include:
• The unauthorized use of PHI for marketing purposes
• The selling of PHI, including PHI obtained during a telehealth communication event
• The disclosure of genetic information for underwriting purposes
THE BEST HIPAA GAME PLAN
Successful aesthetic businesses with forward-looking entrepreneurs understand that the secret to long-term success in the post-COVID reality lies in embracing the need for true, HIPAA secure telemedicine. The tremendous rise in the demand for remote meetings is not a fad that will go away once the COVID public health emergency ends.
The coronavirus crisis has rapidly accelerated the adoption and expectation of telehealth among patients. Avoid putting your aesthetic practice in a lose-lose conundrum that incurs hefty fines.
Symplast is the industry thought-leader for telehealth and patient engagement, leading the aesthetic industry with a modern HIPAA secure cloud platform that optimizes the clinical and financial workflows of plastic surgery practices and medical spas across the country. Learn more about why 3,500 aesthetic users have switched to Symplast, as well as how you can begin offering industry-leading telehealth to your patients at $0 cost thanks to the new ‘teleHEALTH by Symplast’ offering.
Start Using teleHEALTH by Symplast for Free!
Symplast has waived all fees and charges on our stand-alone telehealth solution for the first 60 days.
