Working in the field of therapy, you receive protected health information (PHI) from clients on a regular basis.

This most often takes place via intake or consent forms or by communicating with your clients over email.

Because you’re subject to HIPAA regulations, your clients’ personal information and communications must be kept secure.

The easiest way to keep them protected is to use secure forms, electronic signatures, and an encrypted email platform. These can often be integrated directly into your website.

Beyond complying with HIPAA regulations, these technologies allow you to take a professional ethical standpoint in your digital communications with clients.

Easily and Securely Collect Personal Information

Documenting your sessions with intake forms, surveys, and other forms is critical to running your practice. 

Paper forms, however, are often illegible, incomplete, or have errors that must be corrected. Because they exist in physical form, care must also be taken to store them securely.

Electronic forms are a secure alternative to paper forms. They can be integrated into your website and completed by clients before they come in for their sessions. This saves both you and your clients valuable time and minimizes errors.

Because these forms are protected with HIPAA-compliant encryption, you can be confident private information is kept secure while it’s in transit and in storage.

Secure Email and Forms from TherapySites includes a drag-and-drop form builder, ready-made templates, and mobile-friendly forms.

Securely Sign Forms on Your Website

Electronic forms can also be paired with electronic signatures, which makes it easy to request signatures.

E-signatures are legally binding and have the same validity as a handwritten signature, provided they comply with the requirements of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) or the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). 

TherapySites’ electronic signatures comply with both of these acts and integrate seamlessly into our Secure Email and Forms services. 

Securely Communicate with Clients

The best email platforms are encrypted with OpenPGP encryption. This is simply an additional layer of encryption used in addition to the encryption most email services already use. 

Emails are protected with multiple layers of the most secure protection available. Multiple layers of encryption combined with secure backups and archiving also provide evidence of due diligence in the case of an audit.

Encrypted communications are also possible on “traditional” services like Gmail by requiring recipients to type in a passphrase (like when you log into your bank account).

Secure Email and Forms from TherapySites allows you to send and receive secure email on the web, your preferred email client, or our free iPhone app.

Extra Tips to Keep You Secure

Encrypting your emails and forms goes a long way towards protecting your clients. Of course, you always need to do due diligence on your end. Before you hit send online – slow down.  Make sure you are:

1. Sending emails and forms to the correct email address.
2. Using the first and last name that matches your intended recipient.
3. Aren’t putting sensitive information in the subject line (subject lines aren’t secure).
4. Aren’t sending group emails, unless the content of the emails is very general and doesn’t violate HIPAA.

Communicate with Confidence

To learn more about how to keep your practice and clients secure, contact TherapySites today. 

Our secure forms and emails allow you to communicate with confidence, knowing you can encrypt emails and web forms containing personal health information while meeting your HIPAA requirements.