Medical Billing Forum
General Category => General Questions => : thatcuteblonde November 30, 2009, 06:05:12 PM
-
We termed our contract with our billing company and shortly thereafter they completely revoked our access to their system. They have refused to provide us with any information, records, ledgers, etc for the time during which they did our billing. Is this legal????
-
Yes it is legal as they are acting accordingly as a Covered Entity under HIPAA. You as the billing company should have your own source documents/copies. I would look at your contract and also ask the advice of an attorney if you are owed money that is dependent upon the billing database.
-
Actually she is in the provider's office, the billing service is the one that revoked the provider's access to the billing services records. Right?
-
yes Michelle you are correct, and what does the billing service have that the provider doesn't? I advise all my clients to keep duplicates of everything they send to me.
-
I misunderstood but none-the-less there are billing companies who are Covered Entities, most however are Business Associates. Can't really help with that one without knowing how they are structured. Then there is an issue of what the contract states. It might be perfectly legal for them to cut off access. I know that If I terminate a provider, a part of my own compliance plan and contract states that access to records is immediately revoked. If they need reports, etc I will provide what I can and adhere to my contract.
If a contractual relationship ends it stands to reason access to the billing companies system would be revoked, but again it really depends on the contract.
-
I was going to ask about keeping patient notes. I recently have taken on the responsibility of storing patient notes for several therapists. They send me patient notes via email attachments or fax. I print out all notes, file claims and store notes in a locked file cabinet. Do I need to store the notes in a hard copy file? or can I copy directly to a computer file and store them that way? Just wondering if that would be legal?
-
As long as HIPAA requirements are being met the method of storage is up to you.
Michele
-
I Will not keep or hold any clinical information for liability reasons. I make that a requirement of the provider to keep their own clinical records. The only time i might have something in a patient's file is if I am doing an appeal or the notes were requested and I submitted them. I try to stay away from the clinical aspect of records.