How Much Do You Know About Patients PHI?

How Much Do You Know About Patients PHI?

In medical billing, PHI is personal patient information that should only be shared with covered entities. It is not only wrong to release a patient’s medical billing PHI to outside sources, but it will ruin your business as well.

An example of wrongly shared PHI is at the University of Missouri Health Care. Currently over 800 patients have a class-action lawsuit filed against them. The patients claim their confidential medical billing records were released to a home health provider called Option Care. Option Care apparently called these patients trying to sell them pricey medications. They also tried to convince them that their doctor, Dr. Paul King, did not know what he was talking about. They tried to tell the patients that this doctor did not have their best interests in mind. Apparently Dr King had recently opened a private practice and left the hospital network. Since this medical billing information was released to a non-covered entity, it was wrong.

Now that the hospital has this lawsuit filed against them, patients may be wary to use them as a care provider. The University of Missouri Health Care had originally decided to share the medical billing PHI to boost revenue, but in the long run, revenue will probably suffer.

Working with individuals and departments that you can trust is a requirement in the medical billing field. Private information is constantly passed and should be handled with the utmost confidentiality. The medical billing staff should be aware of the rules and regulations of PHI. An outside medical billing firm has staff that are extremely versed on the regulations. Their whole business is confidential and accurate medical billing. If they do not provide this service, they are out of a job. Medical billing firms can help your practice grow and succeed.

View all Articles by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P