HIPAA-Compliant Online Forms: Legal & Flexibility Considerations
Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019Online forms are crucial for many companies’ data collection, processing, and communication. They can be used as a point of customer contact, for surveys, as part of legal agreements, and for gathering data. They can also be a critical element in an organization’s marketing process.
While online forms have proven helpful in various situations, they can also put healthcare organizations in a precarious position. Companies in this sector may use forms to collect or process ePHI, which means they need to ensure their forms and the surrounding processes are secure and HIPAA-compliant.
Healthcare can be complex from a legal perspective as well. With this in mind, companies need to protect themselves as much as possible. Potential loopholes in their forms are one aspect that is often overlooked. However, it can be addressed quickly. At the same time, organizations still need to have flexible tools that have all the features they need to complete their tasks effectively.
Ink Signatures
When it comes to the legal side of things, it’s essential to make sure that your organization is running a tight ship. Even the smallest errors or loopholes can have significant consequences. While many businesses are generally proactive in this arena, they often leave glaring holes in their forms regarding user rights and other agreements.
They commonly leave these agreements at the mercy of simple checkboxes or systems with more questionable legal ramifications. Although checkbox agreements are often held up in courts as legitimate, they have their problems.
It can be hard to prove the identity of who exactly checked a box, and technical forgeries are also possible. Due to the enormous consequences in the healthcare niche that come from HIPAA violations and data breaches, businesses should be a little paranoid about how they protect themselves. Thankfully, other systems are more thorough than checkboxes.
One of these involves ink signatures. These can be implemented to make customers digitally sign their names and add in some identity verification and timestamp agreements. Together, these processes help show both the individual’s intent and identity more clearly than a simple checkbox system (where the checkboxes could even be pre-checked). This can make agreements more difficult to renege on, giving companies more protection.
Since ink signatures can be completed with a mouse, stylus, or finger, they are far more user-friendly than digital signatures, which are complex and involve cryptography.
Online Form Flexibility
Organizations also need online forms that can be tailored to their specific needs. An HTML editor makes the process customizable yet simple, while an API can give them additional flexibility.
If a company already has an existing form but wants to secure it, it may not want to go to the effort of completely overhauling its setup. Thankfully, some options enable them to integrate existing forms with just a few extra lines of code rather than a wholesale rebuild.
LuxSci’s Secure Form
LuxSci’s Secure Form combines these features into a secure, HIPAA-compliant, and customizable package. We offer different plans to suit the needs of different businesses. This means that there is a Secure Form option to suit any company’s unique circumstances and meet its HIPAA compliance obligations.
