When I tell people this, they ask, “How do you protect patient information when working with an OFS?”People in the medical and health industry have an ethical and legal obligation to protect their patients. How do you keep that obligation when you also need to hire an OFS?
That’s the question that Tozia sent me recently.
Hey John!
I hope you’re doing well! I have a question for you! I have an OFS. I’m a mental health therapist and a colleague asked how I ensure my OFS can maintain confidentiality. For example, if one of my clients is a celebrity, and the OFS recognized the name, how would I ensure they would not share that information?
In the states, I could get an assistant to sign a NDA, confidentiality agreement, or HIPPA agreement but a colleague brought to my attention that they feel it would be difficult to sue someone in the Philippines if they leaked the information.
Do you have advice or guidance around what this would look like? I’m wanting to give my OFS access to my patient system to help with scheduling and other patient facing tasks.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Thank you!
Tozia
Here’s what you can do
1. Yes, you can have them sign an NDA. Yes, it would be difficult to sue them. But do you really want to sue someone? Filipinos take contracts very seriously. They’re super unlikely to do something to jeopardize their job here. There’s not much incentive. Especially if you make it clear how important confidentiality is.
2. Don’t give your OFS access to confidential information right away. Wait until they have earned your trust and you’re confident they won’t leak confidential information. In my experience (only since 2005 with hundreds of thousands of OFS), they’re VERY unlikely to steal or leak confidential information. The only times I’ve ever seen this happen are when an employer asked the Filipino to do a bunch of work and then didn’t pay them. They were just trying to get paid.
3. Start training your OFS on HIPAA as soon as you hire them. Your OFS just wants to do their job and keep the rules. However, they might make mistakes if they don’t understand HIPAA. By teaching them about HIPAA and stressing how important it is and that their job depends on enforcing it, they’ll make it part of their job.
There are so many OFS working in the medical field. We even featured a dentist using OFS in their practice on our blog years ago.
Other industries handle confidential information, too. That’s why we also have a case study on an insurance business and how it protected its client information while working with an OFS team.
You can hire an OFS for your medical or dental practice today at Onlinejobs.ph.
John