New HIPAA fact sheet available

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Offices have a new fact sheet that breaks down how providers are permitted to share electronic protected health information with public health agencies without obtaining an individual's written authorization.

For more information. visit the office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's blog at healthit.gov/buzz-blog/. Here is a link to the fact sheet.

ADANews Reports "HIPAA audits may come for dentists"

In the March issue of the ADANews - Kelly Soderland reported:

"The federal government has begun auditing some health care providers, including dental practices, to ensure they are complying with patient privacy laws and health care information security laws. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights announced March 21 it has begun its second phase of audits of covered entities and their business associates to assess their compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules, according to a news release. The Office for Civil Rights will review whether the policies and procedures adopted and employed by the groups meet selected standards and implementation specifications of the law."

"We want dentists to be aware that this is happening and to take HIPAA compliance seriously," said Dr. Andrew Brown, chair of the ADA Council on Dental Practice. "There are steep consequences for health care providers that don't comply with the law and we don't want to see any dentists having to pay tens of thousands of dollars in a penalty." 

DentalCareLinks is here to help dental practices comply with HIPAA while streamlining the process of sending and receiving patient referral information. Most practices are looking to encrypted email as the answer. DentalCareLinks solves many of the problems that encrypted email systems can create, especially the problem of the recipients not being able to open the email or extract the needed information.  Register to start using DentalCareLinks it is 100% RISK FREE, NO COMMITMENT, NO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED. 

The entire ADANews article can be found here.

Announcing a New Release

New Release:

We have just released our latest update which improves the function for multiple locations. Allowing users to choose the location a referral is sent to as well as allowing the recipient practice to change the location in the event the patient is seen at a different locations.

I addition user settings now allow preferences for which locations a doctor provides care and which locations auxiliary should be notified when a new referral is waiting.

Dental Links is now Dental Care Links!!

With the help of Lungfish Communications Dental Links, LLC is re-branding our revolutionary dental referral management site. DentalLinks.org is now DentalCareLinks.com.  Evan Saks, President of Lungfish communications states:

"It strikes me that 'care' (dental care) is the highest level benefit for everyone in this equation -- general dentists, specialists, office staff, and even patients.  It's also a high value search keyword and could add a little extra juice to your online marketing.  Plus it's easier to read as a domain name."

We will be working hard with our marketing department to fully maximize the value of our new brand.