FCC Confirms HIPAA Rules and Patient Telephone Calls

The Federal Communication Commission issues a declaratory ruling and order to clarify HIPAA rules and patient telephone calls.

Are you among the many health care providers that have had trouble understanding HIPAA rules and how they comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act?   It has been more than 19 and 25 years since these acts were introduced; the FCC did issue a Declaratory Ruling and Order to help clear this up.

This ruling states that, if a patient provides a phone number to a health care provider, the provision of that phone number constitutes express consent to calls being made to that number, subject to certain HIPAA restrictions.  This consent applies to calls related to:  The provision of medical treatment, health care checkups, appointment and reminders. Lab test results, pre-operative instructions, post discharge follow up calls, prescription notifications and hospital pre-registration instructions.  You must also always provide your name and contact details as the health care provider.  It is also recommended to keep calls concise and limited to more than 60 seconds.  There is also a limit to the frequency of calls made to a patient with a maximum of 3 calls per week.  The content is still subject to HIPAA restrictions and can only be made for those purposed described above.  There can be no telemarketing, advertising or solicitation.

For more details on this ruling you can visit the FCC’s website: https://www.fcc.gov/document/tcpa-omnibus-declaratory-ruling-and-order

RingRx can also help.  We have designed a business phone system to help you stay HIPAA compliant by using professional grade encryption to keep your patient’s ePHI safe.