by Marius Ged, on Feb 9, 2022 1:06:01 PM
Is your practice working with an attorney without a BAA in place? You could be at risk! The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires all medical professionals to guard patients' identifiable information carefully.
This rule applies to any third parties who work on your behalf - including legal representatives.
In short, working with an attorney without a BAA in place is a risk you shouldn't be taking. The potential fines are high - up to $50,000 per file. Civil damages can be much higher.
Continue reading to learn more about why you should work with a law firm that utilizes an iron-clad business associate’s agreement - and the risks you are taking if you don't.
The Dangers of Referring Pip Cases WITHOUT Signed Agreements
It is standard practice for all medical experts to carefully manage identifiable information that might expose sensitive data. The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establishes a legal responsibility on their part to do so.
Attorneys working with medical providers to recover paid or underpaid insurance claims must meet this same rigorous standard. In order to meet legal expectations, regulatory and review entities usually check for signed agreements between said medical providers and partner law firms. The language must ensure attorneys understand and abide by the same HIPAA guidelines.
If a medical provider's partner violates said guidelines, the provider is held accountable. What penalties can occur?
To start, fines for a HIPAA violation can be up to $50,000 per file. You may also find yourself open to civil suits - with potential damages being much higher.
Examples of Medical Providers Fined for HIPAA Violations
While HIPAA violations are rare, opening yourself to fines is an unnecessary step to take. Other medical providers decided to ignore the potential risks and partner with law firms without signing an attorney-provider agreement.
For example, when the North Carolina Medical Board investigated a physician for possible HIPAA violations, they found that attorney-client privilege was not established between them. As such, all attorney communications were subject to discovery and subpoena - which meant one attorney's emails could be turned over in court.
After hearing testimony from both parties, the board ultimately decided on a $100 fine. While the fine was light, the new level of oversight on their operations presented increased headaches that could have otherwise been avoided.
Another attorney working on a medical provider's behalf must sign an attorney-provider agreement. However, the attorney violated HIPAA guidelines and failed to secure client information properly.
The medical providers were found responsible for failing to establish policies and procedures that would make said attorneys fully aware of their responsibilities regarding patient privacy. As a result, the attorney's communications ended up in discovery - and were used against them.
The attorney-provider agreement is a necessary step toward protecting your practice from unnecessary risk. State bar associations hold law firms accountable for their actions too... which means you could be held responsible! If you are currently working without an attorney-provider agreement, don't wait.
Why Partner With Ged Lawyers?
Ged Lawyers signs a BAA with our medical clientele so that both sides are compliant with the provisions of the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Additionally, our personal injury protection (PIP) attorneys are experts in their specialty. We devote our full attention to PIP claim recoveries. To ensure that our medical providers are properly compensated, we examine medical records, submit claims, obtain settlements, and take claims to court as needed, ensuring that insurance companies pay our fees according to Florida law.
We believe our outcomes speak for our diligence and the quality of our services. Please take a tour of case studies from a range of medical clients who increased their revenue through partnering with Ged Lawyers.
Our mission as a medical practice is to provide the greatest care possible. Our insurance company's failure to pay claims on time jeopardizes our physician and staff members' livelihoods.
What a Signed Agreement With Ged Lawyers Entails
The HIPAA Privacy Rule allows medical providers to provide patients' protected health information (PHI) to business associates as needed, provided those partners make acceptable assurances that the data will be utilized for only the agreed-upon purpose—here, PIP recovery.
Your signed agreement with Ged Lawyers contains all the elements required by federal law, which entails:
- Describing our necessary uses of PHI.
- Our assurance that we will not use or further disclose PHI beyond those uses or as required by law.
- Our declaration of appropriate safeguards to prevent further use or disclosure of PHI, adhering in all aspects to the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
- Our implementation of the HIPAA Security Rule with regard to electronic PHI.
- Our assurances, as required by HIPAA, that the medical client is notified of any breaches involving protected health information.
- Our assurances, as required by HIPAA, that we will disclose PHI to meet our medical client’s legal obligations with respect to patient requests for copies of their PHI.
- Our assurances that we will make available to HHS the necessary information to show the medical client’s compliance with HIPAA.
- Our assurances that we will return or destroy all PHI received from or created for the medical provider.
Our iron-clad BAA ensures that we will safeguard your data from misuse, thereby ensuring your compliance with HIPAA.
Ready to Get Started?
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this page, and we are confident that our services will meet your needs. Ged Lawyers is proud to state we’ve recovered tens of millions of dollars in money owed from insurance companies.
We appreciate your interest, and would be delighted to schedule a consultation or call (561) 510-7787 at a time convenient for you. Find out exactly how Ged Lawyers can help your medical practice recover the assets it owes.
