Newsletter April 2014

Margaret Faux
Managing Director
Synapse Medical Services

An even bigger and better Appointmaid

‘I’ll just put you through to the nurse…’

Medicare matters

Medicare is headlining once again with the return of the co-payments debate. A comprehensive national discussion about the system’s benefits, complexity and shortcomings is needed now more than ever. Sustainable solutions are possible but we need to be accurately informed. 

Read our clarion call article in the next edition of The Private Practice magazine and join in the conversation. The article is now also available on our website.

Conference circuit

And here’s how you can get further up-to-date on all things Synapse. We’re hitting the road again in 2014 exhibiting at conferences and presenting on the topic of Medicare and Medical Billing at The Private Practice courses. Don’t miss the opportunity to be comprehensively informed on this labyrinthine subject. Here are a few of the current confirmed dates for the first half of the year:

The Private Practice courses:

• 4 May 2014 – Immunologists and Allergy Physicians, Sydney
• 23-25 May 2014 – RANZCOG, Melbourne
• 13-15 June 2014 – Sydney University Medical School

New Staff

Our special combination of energy, experience, knowledge and communication make Synapse a formidable team. We’ve got several new Synapsers who have recently joined us and the team just keeps getting stronger. Gabrielle is our most recent addition in the role of Client Service Administrator and we’re thrilled to have her.

You can read about Gabrielle and everyone else on the team at this link.

‘Appenings

There just seems to be more and more happening with Synapps every month. We can happily report that Synapps is now operating at high capacity and continues to provide all users with an efficient and effective mobile billing solution. We now receive thousands of billings via Synapps every day and will be releasing an update in the next few weeks with improvements including:

• An updated ‘final check and confirm’ function to help you conduct one last review of key data before pressing send.
• The ability to easily move patients to other locations.
• The inclusion of more MBS item number rules to help you stay on track.
• A fresh new Synapps visual makeover.
• The usual bug fixes and enhancements.

The new Privacy laws are here

You’re no doubt all aware that the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 came into full force and effect on 12 March 2014.

Specialist privacy lawyers are definitely feeling loved at the moment as they experience unprecedented demand for their services. And to meet my own annual training requirements as well as to ensure Synapses’ compliance, I attended no less than five hours of continuing legal education privacy seminars, presented by specialist privacy lawyers, in early March.

I thought I’d share with you a few of the key insights that are relevant not only to Synapse but to anyone handling health information.

What are the penalties for privacy breaches?

How should I provide information about my privacy policy?

It depends on the type of information you are collecting. There are two distinct categories of information:

1. Personal information (this includes information such as client or customer details).
2. Sensitive information (this includes all health data such as patient information).

Personal information carries with it a notification requirement. So if you are collecting personal information you must make available your privacy policy by way of notification. This could include informing the person from whom you are collecting the information where they can read your privacy policy if they would like to.

Sensitive information, which includes all health information, requires a higher standard, being active consent. This means that rather than simply notifying the person from whom you are collecting information that a privacy policy is available, you must actually obtain the person’s consent to that policy. This can be done by way of a tick box on a website for example, indicating agreement.

Can I take data outside of Australia?

Yes. Taking data outside of Australia was discussed at length, with data sovereignty being recognised as a major global issue. Data traveling across borders occurs with every press of the ‘send’ button and privacy laws both here and elsewhere have sensibly sought not to prevent the flow of data across borders, but to regulate and control how it is done. Two key provisions in the new legislation require that the person with control of the data must take reasonable steps to ensure the offshore vendor complies with Australian requirements, and the person with control of the data here in Australia is now personally responsible for breaches by the offshore vendor. You can read about the definition of ‘reasonable steps’ at this link http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacy-guides/guide-to-information-security.

Privacy breach cases, facts and stats

Here are some snippets of privacy breach cases from other jurisdictions, as well as interesting stats and facts that were presented and discussed:

• The case of the UK politician who would throw letters from complaining constituents into a bin in a park on his way home each evening.
• The case of a property company who lost a filing cabinet containing payroll details of 37 previous employees.
• The case of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the UK who sent, by ordinary mail, the entire UK Child Benefit database on two unencrypted disks, which contained the personal information of 25 million people. The disks never arrived at the intended destination and were never found.
• Thefts of laptops/phones/devices containing unencrypted information are common.
• A US study which indicated that 9 out of 10 employees would breach privacy.

What steps should I take?

You will need to rewrite your privacy policy as it almost certainly will not accommodate the new laws, if for no other reason than because the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) have been replaced by Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). Any privacy policy stating compliance with the NPPs is now a dead giveaway!

If you haven’t already, start investigating your data flows. Think about data in terms of a life cycle. Look at what you collect and why. Examine how you collect, handle and store information and to whom you disclose it. Are you retaining information for longer that is required? You could also conduct your own internal privacy audit.

If you are routinely emailing unencrypted health data, now is a good time to consider alternative, more secure methods for transmitting this information.

And of course with new risk, came a new business opportunity for the insurance industry. Cyber insurance is now available and is something you may want to explore. It hasn’t achieved a great deal of traction yet, but no doubt will as premiums decrease with increased uptake.

This is by no means all that is required to declare yourself privacy compliant. A great resource to obtain more information and set you on the right track is the OIAC website http://www.oaic.gov.au.

What are we doing to ensure privacy compliance?

Synapse has always taken privacy seriously and as part of our ongoing commitment to the privacy and security of your records and those of your patients, we have engaged lawyers specialising in privacy to:

1. Conduct a complete audit of all Synapse operations; and
2. Present a privacy seminar specially tailored for the Synapse team.

I have already warned the presenting lawyer to be ready for the barrage of questions from the team, especially Gabrielle and Rodney, who are at the coal face answering the phones dealing with hundreds of scenarios that raise privacy issues every day. We’ll let you know how it all goes in the next newsletter.

Synapse supports refugees in sport

Synapse has sponsored the Newington Gunners AAM6 team who will commence playing football in the 2014 competition this weekend. So what’s so amazing about that you might ask – well the team is comprised solely of refugees fleeing violence and persecution in their countries and seeking asylum!

The team came to our attention through a newspaper article (SMH 08/02/2014) discussing the activities of a group of asylum seekers on community detention or with new visas. Many of them were not able to work, volunteer or study as a condition of their community placement and, not willing to sit around at home and stare at the walls, the largely Hazara Afghans, Iranians and Pakistani men joined together to play sport and commence a nightly game. Then one of the local football fans noticed and offered to help.

One thing lead to another and the men couldn’t believe it when, through Settlement Services International (a group that assists refugees with housing and English language courses), they were given a home at the Newington Gunners football club, and then Synapse stepped in by sponsoring their shirts. The club assessed the players speed and agility and placed them in division six. They’re really good!

The coach Eeza Khan (a refugee himself) and his assistant coach have quite a task on their hands, as the only common language is English and the players’ language skills are still developing. So when Eeza gives instructions to the team like “quick, get back there’s a counter attack!” a Babel-like set of translation chains can be heard across the park as the team scramble back to defend.

We’re excited about supporting the boys and will keep you updated with photos and score results throughout the season, but for the meantime …. GOOOOOO Gunners!

So that’s all from us for now. There’s a lot more to come this year, including new services and systems to support your practice and make your life easier. Watch this space.