Medical Records Storage Benefits - Medical Records Storage Companies of America

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Why Store Medical Records Off-Site

With the advent of more and more Electronic Medical Records including back file scanning and storage as well as full EMR or EHR systems, due deligence has to be maintained to protect the printed copy of those records. Many of the records are not needed on a daily basis at this time.

Medical Records Storage Companys Can Cost Less

The cost benefits of storing your medical records off site with a professional record storage company are:

Reduced cost associated with the space required to store the records. You may be able to use that room taken up by medical storage now in a more efficient or profitable way.

The Protection Costs such as the costs to protect the records from fire, viewing by non-authorized personnel, etc are all passed to the professional Medical Records Storage Company.

Medical Records Storage Companies Provide Extra Security

Leaving the medical records in a location where non-authorized personnel can view them is now against the law. Who are those non-authorized personnel? They include the custodial staff, independent contractors, patients and others who can be in your offices and don't have permission to view the records of others. Medical Records must be protected. That means they must be under lock and key 24/7 until they are destroyed.

Storing those records off-site with a professional Medical Records Storage company can be the best way to store medical charts and other patient information. The professional off-site Medical Records Storage company has your records under lock and key, most with video survalliance. They are representing to you that they are following the HIPAA laws relating to the protection of the data.

If you need the medical chart returned to you, they can easily do that in a timely manner.

Medical Records Storage Companies Play a Vital Role in Disaster Recovery

If your organization should fall victim to a natural or man made disaster, you want to be completely up and running with no lost data as fast as possible. Recovering from a disaster is no time to start rebuilding your medical records. In Hurricane Katrina, billions of dollars in past medical test data stored in medical charts were lost and destroyed. A significant amount of those tests were eventually redone, costing all of us in unnecessary expense.

What Should Be Stored

A medical records storage service provider is the place to store any item which contains a patient's information. The most common of these items is the patient chart or medical records. Often missed information about the patient include their xrays and diagnostic tests. These should also be stored professionally and under lock and key 24/7/365 as specified by HIPAA and other government requirements.

Privacy of Confidential Information

Various laws have been enacted to protect the privacy of personal information. The increase in Identity Theft crime has caused the enactment of many of these laws. Various states have also enacted laws, starting with the states of California, Wisconsin and Georgia.

The most famous of the laws is HIPAA, enacted to protect the privacy of Medical Records.

HIPAA (Protecting Medical Records)

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), was enacted in 1996 and includes provisions intended to safeguard the privacy of patient Medical Records. HIPAA is a significant piece of legislation with onerous penalties. For a full text of the SUMMARY OF THE HIPAA PRIVACY RULE from the Department of Human Services, available online go to: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.rtf. See page 16 of this document in regards to specifically "securing records under lock and key.…and limiting access….."

Data Safeguards. A covered entity must maintain reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to prevent intentional or unintentional use or disclosure of protected health information in violation of the Privacy Rule and to limit its incidental use and disclosure pursuant to otherwise permitted or required use or disclosure. For example, such safeguards might include shredding documents containing protected health information before discarding them, securing medical records with lock and key or pass code, and limiting access to keys or pass codes.

.HIPAA LINKS
PENALTIES FOR HIPAA VIOLATIONS:
http://www.utmb.edu/compliance/hipaa/hipaa-overview.htm#penalties

American Medical Association
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/11805.html

Health and Human Services
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.rtf

Medical Records Storage Companies of America