Practice Management Alert

Question: We are now using e-mail to contact patients and carriers regularly. How can we protect the office from legal ramifications brought on by improperly sent e-mails?


Montana Subscriber

Answer: Medical offices that use e-mail to interact with patients can increase efficiency in the communication department, but those offices also run the risk of violating patient protected health information (PHI). To protect themselves legally, medical offices should put some sort of disclaimer in each e-mail message, just in case the e-mail goes to the wrong party.

Check out this disclaimer template, courtesy of Sinaiko Healthcare Consulting Inc. in Los Angeles:

DISCLAIMER:

This e-mail correspondence contains information that is or may be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, PROPRIETARY IN NATURE OR OTHERWISE PROTECTED BY LAW FROM DISCLOSURE, and is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named herein.

If you are not the intended recipient, an addressee, or the person responsible for delivering this to an addressee, you are hereby notified that reading, using, copying or distributing any part of this message is strictly prohibited.

If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact us immediately and take the steps necessary to destroy the e-mail completely.

Thank you. 

The answers to the Reader Questions were provided and/or reviewed by Catherine Brink, CMM, CPC, president of HealthCare Resource  Management Inc. in Spring Lake, N.J.