HIPAA Compliance for Millennials

like to view myself as a successful Millennial, despite my various imperfections. There are some mornings where I do skip my cup of coffee, forget to make my bed, or even brush my teeth. But ever since I started college, I have always remembered one thing: to check my email, multiple times a day.

Out of all of my daily tasks, this one is ultimately the easiest. All I have to do is unlock my iPhone, look at the screen, and touch an envelope icon. Within seconds, I obtain access to my entire digital history, which is conveniently all in one place. Through decades of technological and business innovation, our society has made great strides in optimizing the efficiencies of human communication.  It is remarkable, and Millennials will only continue the progress.

 

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Despite the innovation, the medical sector has struggled with developing effective communication platforms. This is largely due to the HIPAA compliance that establishes strict regulations over electronic health transactions. HIPAA protects the confidentiality of patients’ health records, but also pressures doctors to avoid communicating via email. Electronic mail is currently prone to security breaches, unlike the largely-inconvenient online portals that are being used. If doctors mistakenly email information that violates HIPAA, then they can face serious consequences, including millions of dollars in fees. As a result, they tend to stray away from emails completely, and I honestly do not blame them. Medicine is, arguably, the most competitive field to succeed in. It takes years of schooling, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and occupies your entire young-adult life—all amidst extremely low med-school acceptance rates. I would certainly not risk my well-earned profession over an email, no matter how convenient sending one is.

It is time to channel our innovative strengths into healthcare communication, an outlet that has been hindered by the regulations of HIPAA compliance. Paubox has developed a solution that not only agrees with modern societal norms, but also bypasses the need for any legislative action. The encryption solutions make electronic mail as safe as the current online portal system, so it will make our lives easier. For the first time, we will able to safely receive medical information on the same platform that we literally receive all other information on. To me, this just makes sense. Trying to rewrite HIPAA is not feasible, and it will likely not be at the top of President-Elect Trump’s agenda. Brilliant civilians are capable of tackling the issue; in fact, those at Paubox already have, and since their solution is compatible with HIPAA, there are no red flags.

As a Millennial, as someone outside of the healthcare profession, I honestly see this as a solution, and as the easiest solution. The idea has the potential to revolutionize how doctors communicate with their patients. But here, revolutionize really means “bring up to speed with the rest of the world.” If anything it’s ingenious. I am excited for those working at Paubox, and I encourage doctors to seriously consider optimizing and modernizing medical communications.