HIPAA Compliant Print & Mail

One of our clients, a leading hospital in Pasadena, wanted to ensure they send their patients’ diagnostic reports, discharge summaries, medical invoices, etc., under HIPAA compliance. The COO, let’s call him Dylan, was seeking a Direct Mail API, which allowed them to set up mailing workflows and save time. However, he wanted to work with a HIPAA-compliant solution to avoid data leaks and maintain brand reputation.

Dylan talked to PostGrid about his expectations and decided to integrate PostGrid’s Direct Mail API into the hospital management system (HMS). The CRM already had a database of over 100,000 patients that he wanted to protect. He mentioned that the hospital needed to send at least 10k medical documents monthly and wanted to do so under HIPAA and SOC 2 compliance. Luckily, PostGrid only partners with compliant printing vendors and courier services (like the USPS) for printing and shipping fulfillment.

Our client, Dylan, the COO of one of the leading hospitals in Pasadena—PostGrid helped him send HIPAA-compliant mailings monthly without hassles. There were adequate records for the hospital to prove that it took the necessary steps to protect sensitive patient information (PHI). Also, they could provide the names, mailing dates, delivery addresses, and more details for compliance audits (if needed).

PostGrid helped the hospital do more than print and ship some mailers to patients. It enabled Dylan to create a compliant environment for the staff to securely, promptly, and efficiently produce and send the necessary mailpieces to correct recipients. Thus, they could communicate with their audience without worrying about things like:

• The mail items falling into the wrong hands,
• leaking the data, and
• causing the hospital to pay hefty fines.

Businesses that do not adhere to HIPAA regulations may face severe penalties and lawsuits. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) can require companies to implement a corrective plan to address compliance violations. Criminal penalties for intentional violations can cost you hefty fines and potential imprisonment.

The OCR has the power to enforce these penalties on HIPAA-covered entities according to the Enforcement Final Rule.

• Tier 1: The covered organization was unaware or couldn’t have avoided the violation, even though they had taken reasonable care to adhere to the HIPAA rules.
• Tier 2: The covered entity shown was aware but couldn’t have prevented the violation even if it had taken proper care of the regulations. It still doesn’t imply a willful neglect of the HIPAA rules.
• Tier 3: A violation is the direct result of “willful neglect” of HIPAA rules. The covered entity tries to correct the violation in these cases.
• Tier 4: A violation taking place with willful neglect without any correction attempt within 30 days.

• Tier 1: Minimum $100 fine per violation and may go up to $50,000.
• Tier 2: Minimum $1,000 fine per violation and may go up to $50,000.
• Tier 3: Minimum $10,000 fine per violation and may go up to $50,000.
• Tier 4: Minimum $50,000 for each violation.

The HITECH Act determines these fines annually according to the cost of living for effective corrective action. Even a minor non-compliance in your HIPAA mailings could cost you $100 or more, depending on the number of PHI you’ve exposed.

The criminal penalties are also divided into three separate tiers. The facts of each case determine the term and accompanying fines. Individuals profiting from theft or disclosure of PHI will need to refund the money, along with the fine.

• Tier 1: No knowledge or reasonable reason will lead to up to one year in prison.
• Tier 2: Acquiring PHI with false claims can result in a prison sentence of up to five years.
• Tier 3: Obtaining PHI with malicious intent or for personal profit can result in up to 10 years in jail.

Download our “Direct Mail for the Healthcare Industry’ whitepaper to understand how to approach direct mail for sending transactional, compliance, and marketing items to your clients or patients. Also, learn how to launch your initial mailings without wasting time and money to get your desired outcomes. The whitepaper is your guide to ensuring you successfully send HIPAA-compliant mailings while getting patient responses and a high ROI.

PostGrid is not only compliant with HIPAA, but also follows other national and international data protection laws. It is SOC-2, PCI DSS, PIPEDA, and GDPR-compliant, making it one of the most secure Print & Mail solutions to work with. It doesn’t matter if your clients or patients are from the US or foreign countries; we help you protect their PHI. Also, you can send mail anywhere nationally and internationally while maintaining the same levels of confidentiality and privacy!

Technical Security

When using our automated mailing system to transmit confidential messages—rest assured that a comprehensive audit trail of the message is accessible on our portal for the sender.

Our print and mail platform and API, compliant with HIPAA standards, ensure your private information remains accessible only to authorized personnel. We follow this process from the campaign’s beginning to the delivery stages.

Our password-protected system grants users and operators the appropriate rights and restrictions—specific to each message. You can trust us to handle encrypted messages in SSL or PKI formats and offer you the capability to promptly delete messages containing patient-identifiable content immediately upon project completion. Our deletion process is safeguarded by technologically enhanced security settings, letting you automate necessary deletions.

Physical Security

We conduct annual audits of our facilities to guarantee the ongoing maintenance of safeguards against unauthorized access, tampering, and theft of PHI. Our servers are safe and accessible only to authorized personnel.

Our reputed partners complete the printing and insertion of information into envelopes using equipment that adheres to HIPAA Security Policies and Procedures. It ensures your information receives comprehensive physical protection during printing and shipping.

Procedural Security

PostGrid follows a comprehensive security risk management process in compliance with the HIPAA Security Regulations.

Our robust procedures prevent, detect, contain, and rectify security violations, ensuring the protection of your Protected Health Information (PHI).

We consistently evaluate and implement security measures to mitigate risks and vulnerabilities. PostGrid safeguards the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) within its API systems and platforms.

Our policies and procedures undergo annual audits to maintain compliance with HIPAA rules and regulations. Additionally, we implement continuous improvements to follow the latest security protocols, thereby upholding the highest security levels for your documents.

• Secure Data Archival: We offer various options for safe data archival, with access restricted to authorized personnel.
• Document Security: Documents containing personalized or sensitive customer data are secure using PCI-compliant document destruction equipment.

Healthcare businesses often find it complex to secure their patients’ PHI for the following reasons:

1. Hospitals, clinics, dental offices, etc., often use physical files to store their patient information. Then, they transfer the details to an online spreadsheet or enter them into their online CRM. Though the files are protected later, the initial physical documents are prone to data leaks. Many healthcare organizations have thousands of files in their storage rooms.
2. These medical facilities print and send documents, like invoices, medical reports, consent forms, etc., with confidential patient information—in an offline manner. They manually print out the mailers, stuff them into envelopes, and take them to the post office. Also, it is not always ensured that only authorized personnel do these tasks, primarily because these jobs are daunting and time-consuming.
3. Since healthcare businesses conduct the printing and shipping activities offline, they don’t have enough records to show when and where they sent the mailers. Hence, if a medical document went to the incorrect recipient and a data leak occurs, it is hard to track how it started.
4. Many organizations outsource their mail processing to third-party printers and nearby courier companies. Hence, they give control of their patient information to too many stakeholders, without ensuring whether they comply with HIPAA.

Custom Workflows to Reduce Manual Intervention 

Manual mail handling with PHI is more prone to data breaches and errors. A misaddressed mail or incorrect data on the mailer can lead to severe HIPAA penalties. Use our HIPAA-compliant automated direct mail solution to pull patient or provider data from your existing systems directly. There’s no need to expose the data to multiple individuals when personalizing each mailer. It makes your marketing, transactional, and regulatory communications more compliant with HIPAA guidelines.

Maintain Audit Trails 

Healthcare businesses must keep clear audit trails and records of every communication they send. Manual audit trails are time-consuming, decentralized, inconsistent, and slow to track. Our solution provides readily available information for self-audits or third-party audits. You get higher transparency from the initial document generation to the final mailing.

Use Secure Mailing Methods 

HIPAA compliance requires healthcare companies to provide a chain of custody when sending direct mail. Our solution helps you send sensitive information via USPS Certified or Registered Mail to mailing proofs and delivery confirmations. It requires the intended recipient to sign the mailing upon receiving it to ensure accurate deliverability.

Eliminate Third-Party Risks 

An in-house print and mail operation requires you to maintain relationships with multiple vendors. It might give PHI access to print hardware suppliers, maintenance companies, envelope suppliers, or other third parties. You are free from this worry when you outsource your HIPAA mailings to us. Our print and mail infrastructure is fully HIPAA compliant, ensuring regulatory compliance throughout the mailing process. Our clients don’t have to go back and forth between vendors and ask for compliance certificates by using our solution.

HIPAA Compliant Templates 

You can use our professionally curated templates to make compliance with HIPAA guidelines easier. These templates have the appropriate legal language and dynamic fields for specific patient data. Personalize each template according to your branding rules while maintaining the strict regulatory standards.

Ensure Data Encryption and Redaction 

Encryption is necessary when handling sensitive patient data. PostGrid hosts your data on secure, end-to-end encrypted AWS servers and provides role-based access controls to limit unauthorized access to Protected Health Information (PHI). It protects every confidential information from mail generation to transit.