Rules to assist healthcare providers in implementing e-signature solutions.

Let us cut the long story short, digitization is the truth and electronic signature software holds a considerable share in the global digital software market. The technology has gained huge popularity in the sectors where businesses or organizations have to deal with tons of documents and take care of a huge amount of data each day. These organizations cannot afford to lose this data or make errors in it. One such sector is the healthcare sector.

Healthcare organizations have to deal with hundreds of patients each day. The medical history and other personal information of each patient are crucial and have to be stored safely. This information has to be accessible and retrievable immediately in the time of emergency. A slight delay or a small mistake in the data can cost a patient’s life.

No responsible medical professional would want it. The E-signature solution helps here. However, there are a few things healthcare providers must know before implementing Insurance Industry eSignature Solutions.

Clearly display the terms.

Before you finalize the deal with any e e signature solution vendor that all the terms and conditions in the contract are easy to understand. Courts of the law don’t favor the parties who intentionally mention terms and conditions in a difficult format. While sharing an electronic document to the patient make sure you also mention all the crucial information in an understandable format and words. The size of the format and the place of the terms and conditions should be easily visible too.

Clearly demonstrate consent.

Your digital signing process should clearly reflect that the concerned patient was aware of the terms and conditions mentioned in the contract and had chosen to go for a digital document over a traditional paper paper-based document. You can demonstrate this from:

• The very act if making the signature. The signature can be in any form as mentioned in the HIPAA act and other laws of the land, as long as it distinctly shows that the patient wanted to give the consent. It should be more specific than navigation buttons saying ‘Continue’ or ‘Next’.

• Patients should know about the consequences of signing the document. For example, your electronic document should mention a note alerting the patient that once he/she signs the document, he/she agrees to the terms mentioned.

• Give an option to the patients to print or accept an electronic copy of the document.

• As per the UETA Act (which regulated electronic signature process across 47 states of the US), and the Ensign Act (which is the federal esingature law) it is important that both the parties have an access to retrieve the signed electronic records. The Transactions Act specifically states that terms of any contract can not be considered as enforceable if the involved parties (in your case patients and others) are not allowed to take a print or store the electronic document.

Keep a record.

As a responsible healthcare provider, you are supposed to save and maintain all the records in detail format, such as with date, time, personal information, the purpose of treatment, medical history, etc. along with the mutually signed document version.

The agreement should be mutual

Healthcare providers must avoid indulging in browsewrap agreements. This means, mentioning the terms and conditions in the website link and assuming that the patients have done through it does not make sense. This is a unilateral way, which hardly gets approval in a court of law. Instead, share a proper document with terms and conditions to each patient and make sure they go through it.

Verify identity.

Last but not least, is to make sure that the person who is signing the document (in any form)/is the one who’s name is mentioned in the document, not relatives or a son or a spouse. This will save you from probable future arguments. You can do this by assigning a unique username and password to the patient, or assigning a security question in which the answer is known to the patient only. If not, just communicate with the patient and validate his/her identity. An app for signing documents has to add to the ease and security.

Conclusion:

The healthcare profession is responsible and while the medical staff indulges in new technology, it is recommended to follow certain precautionary steps or rules. Electronic signature software is a boon if used as per the given guidelines. Your patients and your staff, both will feel relieved and relaxed if the solution is implemented properly.