Case Study: LuxSci SecureForm and Ink Signatures Eliminate Downloading, Printing, Signing, and Faxing of Contracts

For legal reasons, LuxSci’s HIPAA customers must physically sign a “Business Associate Agreement” and return it to us. While this is a simple and commonplace request, it creates a lot of busy work for the customer and LuxSci!

The customer might have to

1. Download the file
2. Print out the 19 pages
3. Sign the agreement
4. Fax back all pages, or scan them and return them electronically

Then, LuxSci might have to

1. Locate the document
2. Sort out faxes that are in the wrong order, upside down, blank, or missing pages
3. Figure out who sent the document
4. Verify that pages are not missing or changed
5. Counter-sign the document and attach them to the customer account
6. Contact customers who have not sent in their documents correctly or at all, which is crucial to the HIPAA certification process

Multiplied by many customers, this creates a lot of unproductive busy work for everyone, which costs money this time.

To simplify this process, LuxSci uses its own Secure Form and Ink Signatures technologies to submit signed contracts in a snap for customers and eliminate most of the busy work LuxSci itself has to do to manage the process.

In this post, we describe how both technologies work.

For Customers: The Contract Signature Form

To replace a contract download, printout, sign, and fax or scan, LuxSci has created a single web page form that:

1. Displays the contract in a scrollable area
2. Asks the user to type in some contact information (name, title, organization, order number)
3. Asks the user to check a checkbox agreeing to the contract
4. Asks the user to draw their signature in the Ink Signature box (using a mouse, stylus, or finger in any modern web browser or touch-sensitive device).
5. Validates the data to ensure that the user has entered information, checked the box, and signed something.
6. Submits the data when the user presses the “Submit Signed Forms” button.

Once the button is pressed, the customer is done!

To see what this form looks like, see LuxSci HIPAA Signature Form.

For LuxSci: Automated Form and Signature Processing

The web form uses Ink Signatures to capture the user’s drawn/written signature, and this form is posted securely through the Secure Form service.

1. The form data is re-filled into a PDF form on the back end
2. The signature is converted into an image, including a dynamic caption that includes the customer’s name and the date.
3. The signature image is appended to the re-filled PDF form as a new and last PDF page.
4. The flattened and finalized PDF is then emailed to the appropriate people at LuxSci and saved in a Documents WebAide for a backup/archive copy.
5. A copy of the submitted form data, the actual date, time, and the customer’s IP address is also automatically saved to a MySQL database for archival and tracking purposes.

This dramatically simplifies the process on LuxSci’s side because:

1. The PDF always comes through with all pages in the correct order and right side up.
2. The PDF has all the information needed, as this is validated.
3. The Contract cannot have been edited or modified by the customer.
4. The Contract is in a nice, electronic form that can be easily managed.
5. The signature is included.

As a side benefit,

1. Copies of the signed contracts get archived, and we get an archival database of the submitted details.
2. Secure Form provides protections against form spam
3. The entire process is done securely
4. We don’t have to inconvenience our customers because the contract signing process is more straightforward and efficient.

What does it take to set up?

Implementing this new contract approval process is straightforward and fast.

1. Have a LuxSci account with Secure Form
2. Create a web form and integrate the Secure Form posting and Ink Signature field (which is simple for any web designer to do)
3. Create a PDF form of the contract with form fields matching the web form fields so that the form data can be re-filled into this to create the final document.

Secure Form with Ink Signatures can be set up in minutes once you design your PDF and web forms.