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How technology can help agencies prioritize risk management in the age of data

4 ways to improve client risk management in home care with data

The privacy and security risks to which home care agencies are susceptible have been well-publicized. Data breaches affecting home care and home health providers continue to rise, with some reports showing incidents up 83% in the last ten years. As our industry continues to grow and evolve, it has never been more important for providers to understand the risks that they face and to implement practices designed to mitigate them.       

Potential data breaches represent only one aspect of providers’ security and compliance risks. Home care agencies must maintain compliance with regulations including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while their use of data and deployment of technologies like mobile solutions and virtual visits continues to proliferate. Behind these compliance obligations lies the risk of fines and penalties, and the risk of claims from plaintiff attorneys who comb these regulatory proceedings in search of clients for potential cases. According to this HHCN article, home-based care accounted for more than 20 percent of claims against nurses in 2020 – up from about 12 percent just five years prior.    

While ensuring that your data is secure from misappropriation, the new reality is that this is no longer sufficient. The reliability and integrity of the data that documents the care provided and performance of your staff adds new requirements to be able to audit and track approvals and authorizations.  

You and your technology partners need to align your risk management practices and co-operation in order to achieve meaningful reductions in risk. 

Staying compliant within the systems where an agency operates  

Home care agencies and the partner they choose to maintain their Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and all related functionality must work together to “complete the circle” that is modern HIPAA compliance. Data residency, security, encryption, and robust control systems must be implemented by software platform providers. Home care service providers are also responsible for managing access and device privileges, permissions, and passwords. So, it becomes critical to know how to ensure internal data integrity, how that EHR system archives, secures, validates, and produces historical records – and how the agency fits into that process. 

A capable technology partner will work in tandem with a home care provider to meet all customer compliance obligations under HIPAA.   

As data-driven home care takes greater root each passing year, it is increasingly vital to have a foundation of security and compliance in place. This is particularly important considering the data requests that agencies will face in perpetuity. Patient and care recipient records are becoming the source of increasing scrutiny and the subject of a wide variety of requests, including auditors from insurers and other payers, family members who have questions about care levels, and regulatory agencies in connection with audits and reviews.   

These additional layers of stress can begin to erode operations and efficiency, so it’s imperative to have a process in place that securely archives validated records – as deep a level of documentation as possible – in order to produce information in a seamless fashion.  

Learn more about cybersecurity in home care

How technology enables risk management in home care 

Part of this approach to secure, compliant record keeping is an agency safeguarding vital administrative systems – ensuring that all billing, payments, and collections are accurate and timely; maintaining up-to-date certification among all caregivers; and other key elements that can expose risk.    

Whatever software is underpinning operations must be deep and detailed so an agency stays financially and clinically compliant, as businesses can face audits that require data integrity, time stamps, and audit trails on both billing and clinical sides. This can help prevent misinformation mistakenly feeding imprecise claims or inappropriate services that are clear red flags to auditors.        

Legacy software systems can make accessing information or claim stamps difficult if not impossible, especially where data is moving through other channels like health information exchanges and specialty solution providers. On the other hand, tech with a strong infrastructure and clear information pathways makes responding to requests, and maintaining security and compliance, easier. Check out our security and privacy FAQs to learn more.   

This, of course isn’t a one-and-done situation; instead, agencies and their tech partners must work in tandem over time to maintain best practices, evolve security elements as needed, and tweak custom features like access controls (roles and permissions) – particularly when on- and off-boarding employees.  

This standard ensures they have secure policies and procedures in place to govern the security, availability, integrity, confidentiality and privacy of data stored in the cloud.

A quick pro tip: trust your system to a technology partner that is SOC-2 compliant. This standard ensures they have secure policies and procedures in place to govern the security, availability, integrity, confidentiality and privacy of data stored in the cloud.  

Ultimately, maintaining a strong focus on risk management means an agency forges an earned reputation for being responsible and trustworthy on behalf of clients and their families. And that is part-and-parcel with the delivery of high-quality care. 

Hear about home care security and risk compliance from an expert, with our Q&A with AlayaCare’s Richard Guttman security and risk compliance expert to help answer the important questions about the best practices in risk and compliance for home care agencies today. 

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