4 Recipes for HIPAA-Secure, Practice-Efficient Service Selection

The modern world of practice tech services is a smorgasbord of paperless practice options. Using these online services is a great way to be efficient, flexible, and HIPAA-secure all at once.

But with so many options, how can you know which ones to use? Well, we get asked about that every day here at Person Centered Tech. And for the first time ever, we’re here to share our favorite service selection recipes for both solo and group practices. Bon apetit!

NB: This article takes a very high-level view of the service selection process, and leaves out a lot of the little details. Because it is so high-level, we can have playful fun comparing the service selection process to cooking recipes. For more detailed guidance, check out the links at the bottom of this article. 

Lite Recipes For One (Solo Practices)

These 2 recipes are for you solo practitioners who only need to serve 1 — yourself.

The Roy Special

I (I’m Roy) use this one in my own practice and love it. If you’re a solo therapist with low-to-medium client volume — and you keep your records on paper — you may enjoy it, too!

Serves: 1 (this recipe falls apart when you try to double it — only use it for your solo practice)

1. Google Workspace account, Basic tier (sub MS 365 if you really prefer it)
   • Documents and spreadsheets
   • Data storage
   • Calendar
   • Secure video for teletherapy
   • Business email
2. Hushmail account
   • Secure online forms
   • Secure email
3. RingRx account
   • Voice calling
   • Voicemail
   • Conventional texting
   • FAX
4. Signal Secure Messenger account
   • Secure messaging w/ clients
5. Square account
   • Taking payments

Get each service with a BAA (except for Signal — read our Signal review for special, vital preparation instructions.) You need those BAAs for the HIPAA-freshness.

Use Hushmail for your sensitive emails and to set up a secure contact form on your website. Go lite on the Gmail emails — a little goes a long way there. Try to use Signal, Hushmail, and phone calls (RingRx), instead. Keep in mind the need to be careful with nonsecure communications. Use RingRx when FAXing raises its pesky old head. Lay on the Google Meet for video calls and Google Docs when you need a place to make documents and spreadsheets.

The Paperless Therapist

This one is great for you online record-keeping lovers. I hope you enjoy it as much as thousands of my colleagues do!

Serves: 1

1. Your favorite practice management system
   (Not sure? Use Rob Reinhardt’s reviews to help you find one)
   • Record-keeping
   • Make sure it has:
     • Secure messaging app for use with clients
     • Online intake forms
     • Billing and taking payments
2. Google Workspace account, Basic tier (sub MS 365, E3 tier if you really prefer it)
   • Documents and spreadsheets
   • Data storage
   • Calendar
   • Secure video for teletherapy
   • Business email
3. iPlum account
   • Voice calling
   • Voicemail
   • Conventional texting
   • Secure messaging w/ clients
   • FAX

Get a BAA with all these services. You really want all that good HIPAA-ness.

Get new client contacts and do intake through the forms that your practice management system provides. Use Google for documents, spreadsheets, and keep the email use lite. Use the practice management system’s secure messaging to communicate with clients — especially to send documents. If that isn’t quite to your taste, you can use iPlum’s secure messaging app to talk to clients, instead. But you’ll still need the practice management system in order to securely send documents to clients.

If your practice management system has video for telehealth, try it out and see if you like it. If it works well, great! If not, Google Meet is reliably good stuff.

Oh, and if you have particular tastes when it comes to teletherapy video, you can always sub in VidHealth, VSee, Doxy.me, or your favorite standalone teletherapy videoconferencing service.

Big Dishes For Parties (Group Practices)

Teams require team-sized dishes. These recipes are ramped up to meet the needs of 2, 5, 20, or even more team members!

The Prudent Planner

You don’t have to splurge to impress your team with a great service setup. Leverage a feature-rich practice management system, along with the power-packed Google Workplace, to put a lot of needed functions in just a couple places.

Serves: Many!

1. Your favorite practice management system
   (Not sure? Use Rob Reinhardt’s reviews to help you find one)
   • 1 account for each team member
   • Record-keeping
   • Make sure it has:
     • Billing and taking payments
     • Robust intake and clinical forms features
     • Secure video for teletherapy
2. Google Workspace, Business Plus tier (sub MS 365, E3 tier if you really prefer it)
   • 1 account for each team member
   • Documents and spreadsheets
   • Data storage and team file sharing
   • Calendar, individual and team
   • Secure video for teletherapy
   • Team chat
   • Team email
   • Business email
3. Hush Secure Forms (part of Hushmail for Healthcare)
   • 1 account for each team member who needs to manage and access contact forms
   • Secure contact forms
   • (If your practice management system’s forms feature falls short of your needs, you can always use Hush Secure Forms to fill in the gaps.)
4. iPlum
   • 1 account for each team member
   • Voice calling
   • Voicemail
   • Conventional texting
   • Secure messaging w/ clients or team members
   • FAX

You’ve only got 4 companies to get a BAA with, but make sure you get all of them. That BAA is the secret sauce that really brings out the HIPAA-ness.

Let your team work in Google and the practice management system. Let clients do their thing in the practice management system’s client portal. Hush Secure Forms gives vital linkage to the practice website and iPlum takes care of all those phone service needs. It’s simple, inexpensive, and sure to please.

The Extravaganza

Sometimes you just want to go all out! This one isn’t for most practices, but it’s a great recipe for showing you all the different ways you can get your team what they need.

Serves: Many!

1. Your favorite practice management system
   (Not sure? Use Rob Reinhardt’s reviews to help you find one)
   • 1 account for each team member
   • Record-keeping
   • Make sure it has:
     • Billing and taking payments
2. Google Workspace, Business Plus tier (sub MS 365, E3 tier if you really prefer it)
   • 1 account for each team member
   • Documents and spreadsheets
   • Data storage and team file sharing
   • Calendar, individual and team
   • Secure video for teletherapy
   • Team chat
   • Team email
   • Business email
3. LuxSci w/ Secure Connector
   • 1 account for each team member
   • Secure email that you can use from inside GMail
4. RingRx
   • 1 account for each team member
   • Voice calling
   • Voicemail
   • Conventional texting
   • FAX
5. IntakeQ (sub Hush Secure Forms or Cognito Forms, if you prefer)
   • 1 account for each team member who needs to manage and access online forms
   • Secure contact forms
   • Intake forms and other clinical forms
6. VidHealth, VSee, Doxy.me, or your other favorite teletherapy video platform
   • Secure video for teletherapy
7. OhMD, Plus tier
   • Secure messaging w/ clients or team members

This one calls for 7 BAAs. Don’t miss any of them, or the HIPAA-ness won’t flow. And we can’t have that!

While this recipe has your team jumping from service-to-service to do their work, they can rely on each one of those services to do its thing really well.

Dessert

We know you’ll love mixing and matching these recipes, but we also know you’ll want help in doing that. Here’s what we have to help you take your practice to the next level:

Solo practices: Check out the Supported Security Bundle, or subscribe to Office Hours a la carte!

Group Practices: Subscribe to the exciting Group Practice Office Hours for deep guidance and deep discussions.