Medical forms are an important part of your medical records. They help us understand your health concerns, family health history, manage billing, and protect your privacy. We ask you to fill out forms each year so we can keep this information up to date and provide you with the best possible care. We will also ask you for updated insurance cards and photo I.D. each time you come.
One of the ways we provide you with the best possible eyecare is through the use of electronic medical records.
Along with the use of electronic medical records comes great responsibility on our part. We recognize this fact and are dedicated to keeping your information safe through multiple firewalls, and safeguards. We also conform to the strict guidelines put forth by HIPAA (Health Information Privacy Act) and CMS (Center for Medicare Services) “meaningful use” requirements. By achieving these “meaningful use" requirements, we improve healthcare quality and patient outcomes.
In short, it is not our goal to invade your privacy or put your Personal Health Information at risk, but rather we are doing our best to follow the rules, meet all requirements, and provide the best possible care for our patients.
CMS has the strictest requirements of any health insurance, so by utilizing those standards across the board- even for private insurance and private pay patients- we are confident that we are making the very best effort to provide our patients superior service while safeguarding both your personal information and patient rights.
We include your photo ID in your patient record for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, for your safety. When we can verify your identity by looking at your photo, it eliminates the risk of treating the wrong patient. You might be surprised at how many patients will respond to the incorrect name. We want to be sure we have the proper chart pulled up when we are treating you.
Secondly, it helps to prevent Insurance Fraud. We do not suspect that you are committing fraud, however, it is a very prevalent problem and Medicare requires us to keep a photo ID on file for each patient to verify that they are the insurance holder. In fact, many insurance companies require this and if we are audited by an insurance company and they do not see a photo ID in your chart, we can incur fines or other penalties.
We want you to enjoy your visit at Koetting Eye Center, we want to make things as easy and pleasant as possible, but we do also have to follow these requirements.
Rest assured that we take your privacy and your information seriously and we are dedicated to protecting you and to providing the very best service possible.
