It was reported in May 2019 that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revises financial penalty caps on some classes of HIPAA violations.
According to the ADA News, the new penalties are as follows:
- $25,000 for an unknowing HIPAA violation;
- $100,000 for a HIPAA violation due to reasonable cause but not due to willful neglect;
- $250,000 for willful neglect corrected within 30 days; and
- $1.5 million for willful neglect not corrected within 30 days.
While the previous caps were $1.5 million for all four classes of violations, this still ain’t chump change. Savvy dentists will take note.
What’s In Your HIPAA Training?
It’s likely that every dentist office in the country has a HIPAA training program for its team members. The problem with training programs is that they’re not, or shouldn’t be, a one-and-done proposition.
HIPAA compliance is necessary in a broad variety of settings – online, record transfers, face-to-face interactions, and telephone interactions. None of these settings are as clearly defined as what happens during a cleaning and exam, or a restoration, or any other dental procedure. The non-clinical settings are fluid, often time-pressured, and subject to miscommunication and ill-advised actions.
Most dental practices today are swamped with patients, and front office team members are often inundated by phone calls and in-person patient requests. Without periodic reminders to keep HIPAA awareness high, dental practices are courting a heavy hit to their bottom lines.
SmartBox Has The Answer
Our Patient Attraction Phone Training
& Certification Program is a proprietary, dental practice-specific online training course. The modules are available on-demand and include recorded anonymized calls, exercises, and wealth of wisdom and practical techniques to help your front office team convert more prospects to appointed patients.
SmartBox’s Phone Training Program adds new modules and information several times a year. One of our most recent additions is a HIPAA training module specifically devoted to the compliance challenges that phone answerers face every day.
As an added bonus, completion of the training program may be eligible for 8 continuing education credits.
Your subscription includes UNLIMITED access for you and your entire staff (as well as exclusive updates) for just $247/month. And when you pair our proprietary phone training program with SmartBox’s PracticeHQ marketing dashboard which records incoming calls that are analyzed by our Call Quality Analysts, you have the formula for huge success.
As Dr. Travis Watson of Marietta, Georgia said, “The favorite thing that has kept me excited is the fact that we can monitor the calls coming in, listen to the calls, and really help our front desk grow in terms of verbal skills because it’s one thing to get the calls, but you’ve got to convert those calls. That has helped me coach my team a little better.”
Protect Your Practice While Earning More
Discover what SmartBox’s innovative products can do for your practice. Visit our website Products page to learn more about our Patient Attraction Phone Training & Certification and our PracticeHQ marketing dashboard.
