As a healthcare payer, you generate many communications for your members. This constant need to inform and disclose has become even more complicated, and all HIPAA letters must follow strict regulations and guidelines. It can become overwhelming and expensive, which has prompted the industry to outsource these print and mail documents.
If your organization is considering migrating from an in-plant to outsourcing, you’ll have good reason to with all these benefits.
The Benefits You Realize When Outsourcing HIPAA Letter Printing
You have a lot of questions and considerations before you make the decision to outsource. The list below should clear up any misconceptions and lead you to make the best choice for your company.
Gain Enhanced and Reliable Compliance
The first element to dig into is compliance, which is the foundation for HIPAA letters and handling PHI (protected health information). In evaluating a provider’s compliance protocols, you want to check off these things:
- Certification of HIPAA compliance and HITRUST (Health Information Trust Alliance): Some business partners are compliant with HIPAA and have the evidence to support this. However, you should also seek a partner with HITRUST certification, as it demonstrates their commitment to exceed regulatory requirements.
- Robust data security protocols: Outsourcing means delivery of data via the internet, so it’s essential to understand the security around these transactions. Inquire about the secure channels to transmit data, encryption, intrusion protection systems, and all other cybersecurity policies.
- Compliance officer on staff: A print and mail company that produces highly-regulated communications like HIPAA letters should have a culture of compliance led by a compliance officer.
- Well-designed workflows that align with HIPAA requirements: Another aspect of compliance is the production processes. A reliably compliant provider promotes consistency in workflows to avoid deviation. One of the best ways to scale that is by applying Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma, which build quality into the product with a quality assurance framework.
Reach a Higher Level of Accuracy
With the practices in place for compliance, accuracy can increase, too. With HIPAA letter printing, you are responsible for ensuring that each letter makes it to the intended recipient. So, you’ll need to gauge the accuracy capabilities of a provider.
Key to this is the production process of inserting. Intelligent insertion technology is a must for these operations. Additionally, using 2D barcodes scanned by mini cameras ensures integrity in the insertion. A consistent, consistent workflow focused on quality assurance will remit minimal errors. One mis-mailing can trigger a breach claim, so you have to feel confident in the outsourcing company.
Consider your current accuracy rating and compare that to others. While 99% accurate may seem like an impressive number, that’s still a lot of errors. Our rating is 99.9999% due to the training of our people, technology, and LEAN manufacturing process..
Realize Substantial Savings in the Short and Long Term
Print and mail operations are expensive, and with postage and materials still trending up, it’s not getting any cheaper. As a result, your in-plant has become a glaring cost center. In a time when most organizations want to find savings, this is a great opportunity.
Outsourcing eliminates costs for hardware, machinery, software, labor, space, and more. The rates for postage and materials will be much lower with a transactional print and mail company. They can achieve better pricing because of the volume of paper and postage they purchase.
Strengthen Business Continuity
What happens if your in-plant has unscheduled downtime? Such an incident doesn’t stop the clock running when HIPAA communications need to be delivered. Such a scenario may keep you up at night, but outsourcing experts can keep operations moving.
For example, we have two mirror facilities strategically located in different regions. Should a natural disaster occur, both would unlikely be impacted, so production keeps moving, and there’s no delay in getting timebound communications out to members.
Ready to Outsource HIPAA Letter Printing? PCI Group Can Help
We have a long history of supporting HIPAA compliant communications. Such a migration requires expertise and planning, which we’ve developed and improved consistently. Our HIPAA expertise also makes us a great partner for healthcare payers.
Now is a great time to consider this change, so you can reduce costs while increasing compliance, quality, and accuracy. Contact us today to learn more.
