If your business works in or adjacent to healthcare, then you know HIPAA compliance isn’t optional. The penalties for making a mistake (even inadvertently) can be steep.
Clinics, private practices, billing services, and healthtech startups rely on mail as a part of doing business and serving patients. You can’t completely avoid mailing sensitive information that’s protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But you can do it safely and compliantly.
Here’s what you need to know about how to protect sensitive data and keep your business HIPAA compliant while using postal mail, email, fax, or virtual mail management.
What is HIPAA-compliant mailing?
HIPAA-compliant mailing is the practice of handling postal mail containing protected health information (PHI) in ways that keep that PHI appropriately protected.
To be HIPAA-compliant, a mailing practice must protect PHI throughout the mail lifecycle and in all its forms:
- Must include secure handling, delivery, and disposal
- Applies to physical mail, email, and digital tools
- May require Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with vendors or partners who handle mail
Healthcare organizations that send PHI physically through the mail or scan and digitize mail must ensure that their processes are HIPAA compliant at every turn — both in print and electronically.
4 key rules to ensure HIPAA-compliant mailing
HIPAA-compliant mail management can feel impossible to navigate, especially for newly formed healthcare startups or virtual private practices. However, once you know the key rules, it’s easier to make informed decisions and protect your practice by securing mailed PHI appropriately.
1. Know HIPAA’s definition of PHI
PHI is widely misunderstood and misclassified. Even some healthcare professionals may assume it stands for or applies to personal health information, or that it refers strictly to patient health records or identifiers like Social Security numbers.
The term actually refers to protected health information: any form of medical information that a provider, health plan, public health authority, insurer, or educational institution either creates or receives for an individual.
Essentially, any information relating to a patient’s health, whether past, present, or future, falls under HIPAA’s definition of PHI, including:
- Medical records
- Explanation of benefits (EOB) and coverage
- Billing statements
- Letters or reminder notices
- At-home medical testing information
2. Understand the HIPAA Security Rule
The HIPAA Security Rule refers to a federal regulation concerning electronic protected health information (ePHI), which is PHI that is sent or stored electronically.
It covers the confidentiality, integrity, and security of all ePHI, but it also goes beyond just medical records and information, extending to:
- Employee training
- Access controls
- Firewalls
- Encryption
To comply with this law, a healthcare organization needs robust administrative, technical, and physical security policies and protocols to protect patients’ health information.
3. Choose certified mail when sending PHI via postal mail
When sending PHI via postal mail, certified mail is always the more secure option. With tracking capabilities and signature requests, you can drastically reduce the odds of interference or misdelivery.
Under HIPAA, you may actually be required to choose certified mail for certain types of medical records, so it’s safest to default to certified mail for all PHI correspondence.
4. Ask partners to sign a Business Associate Agreement
A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) outlines your data security protocols, specifying everything from your encryption standards to your ownership policies. BAAs are typically necessary if a business partner will work with or access your PHI at any point.
You might need a business partner to sign a BAA if:
- You provide patient medical codes to a third-party biller.
- You contract with a managed service provider (MSP) and authorize access to your network.
However, HIPAA covered entities (including most healthcare entities and the U.S. Postal Service) are not required to enter into an official BAA if they maintain full control over their PHI. So, if you run a small practice where there is no disclosure of PHI, you wouldn’t need a BAA — even if you send PHI in the mail.
Which mailing methods are HIPAA compliant?
HIPAA laws don’t specifically forbid the use of standard transmission systems. It’s possible to use any major delivery method (postal mail, email, fax, and virtual mail) and remain HIPAA compliant, but each method has its own strengths and risks.
Postal mail
Postal mail is still a top choice for sending PHI, for a few reasons. Some kinds of healthcare correspondence must be sent in hard-copy form, and not every patient has email and internet access. Many patients prefer paper statements to paperless, as well.
But to stay compliant, you’ll need to send via first-class mail or even certified mail, and you must take steps to ensure information is reasonably protected from outside exposure. Mail carries risks of loss, misdelivery, and theft, which could create HIPAA concerns and reflect poorly on your organization (even when it’s not your fault).
While mail scanning is a viable option for health insurance providers and other large-volume healthcare organizations, many still rely on physical mail for outgoing correspondence, so it’s vital to have a secure, scalable system in place.
The least popular option, email communication is something many healthcare providers avoid when they can, preferring to send and receive PHI by mail.
Fax
Fax technology transmits paper documents over telephone systems. No industry relies on fax like the healthcare industry, in part because fax technology is considered HIPAA-compliant in a way that email isn’t necessarily. (Yes, there have been HIPAA fines for wrong-number faxes.)
But the biggest problem with relying on fax tech is that no one uses it anymore. Ask a typical patient to fax in a form, and you’re more likely to get blank stares in return than successful faxes.
Virtual mail
Virtual mail is an increasingly popular solution for healthcare mail. Virtual mailbox services like Stable can accept mail on your behalf, scan and upload the exterior of the envelope or package, and provide you with a secure online portal to manage all mail digitally, from wherever you are.
It’s more convenient than a traditional mailbox, and providers typically have robust privacy and security measures in place to ensure patient data remains protected.
When you choose a HIPAA- and SOC-2-compliant virtual mailbox provider like Stable, you can enjoy the benefits of modern mail management without putting your organization at risk.
- Cost and time savings: With a virtual mailbox, professionally trained on-site staff will sort your mail, scan letters, deposit checks, and shred documents upon request. This can save you and your team time while eliminating the need for traditional office space or a dedicated mail room.
- Improved organization: If you’re constantly wondering how to organize your sensitive mail, a mailbox service like Stable can help you tag and categorize your files, so you’re not wasting time hunting down the documents you need.
- Powerful integrations: When you integrate your virtual mailbox with tools like Google and Slack, you can securely pull in relevant data to your most widely used platforms.
- Convenient forwarding: Stable offers forwarding services for your letters and packages, so you can retain physical copies of your most important documents.
- Secure disposal: Stable will securely shred and dispose of any unwanted mail to ensure no private patient information falls into the wrong hands.
SOC-2 and HIPAA: How they work together
Security and Organization Controls 2 (SOC-2) is an assessment tool for evaluating privacy, security, and administrative processes for their confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
While not healthcare-specific, its standards are similar enough to HIPAA regulations that, if you comply with HIPAA, you should pass an SOC-2 audit with flying colors. SOC-2 breaks down into these categories:
- Security: Data must be protected from physical damage, unauthorized access, and unauthorized disclosure.
- Availability: You must have safeguards in place to ensure business continuity and data recovery in the event of a disaster, as well as effective capacity management to avoid availability issues caused by exceeding system limits.
- Confidentiality: Organizations must first identify all PHI before implementing tools like encryption and access controls to protect it.
- Processing integrity: Data processing must be complete, accurate, timely, and authorized under SOC-2 guidelines.
Organizations that fall flat in any of these categories could potentially risk their HIPAA compliance. If you’re not using the right virtual tools, you can open the door to data theft or loss of data integrity.
So, if you opt for virtual mailing services, make sure you choose a provider that is SOC-2 and HIPAA-certified, like Stable.
Why Stable is a better way to manage HIPAA-compliant mail
Unlike some mail management services that contract out their handling to third parties, Stable maintains full control over processing, so we can ensure secure mail handling from start to finish.
With Stable, you get more robust document control that lets you search documents from the dashboard, assign mail pieces to team members, and take action on mail — all digitally. We can also produce a BAA upon request, helping you demonstrate compliance.
Minimize HIPAA risks with Stable’s virtual mail management
When you virtually manage your physical mail, you streamline workflows, save time, and eliminate hassle for yourself and your staff. And with a HIPAA- and SOC-2-compliant virtual mailbox provider like Stable, you can also significantly reduce HIPAA violation risks at the same time.
You’ll never eliminate all risks, but making the smart mail choice and partnering with Stable can help you avoid fines and reputational damage, thanks to our secure, reliable, HIPAA-compliant mail solution.
Sign up for a virtual mailbox from Stable today to modernize your mail management and stay HIPAA compliant.
