Telehealth Compliance
No company can afford to overlook the financial cost of not investing in an efficient certification management solution. For the telemedicine industry, this rings especially true; the landscape of healthcare entails immense regulatory standards which shift often, making management an incredibly trying challenge. Without an adequate system for managing these certification tasks, businesses can easily face noncompliance and subsequently suffer severe financial repercussions.
The biggest cost of overlooking such a management system is an inability to stay updated on the many changing regulations and licenses at both the state and federal level. Healthcare compliance regulations are notoriously stringent and inherently complex; failure to remain in compliance with them can lead to significant fines, legal fees, and reputation damage. This happened to several healthcare providers within the United States this past year, in which seven companies were fined a total of $30 million total for HIPAA violations.
Moreover, the cost of avoiding these programs extends beyond potential fines and penalties; inefficient and outdated certification programs can lead to an overflowing of healthcare data, an issue which becomes increasingly dire as telemedicine continues to enter the mainstream. Without an adequate solution to manage the influx of data, companies can struggle to store and organize disruptive or unstructured data, a task that may be too time-consuming to conquer. An integrated program that automates, organizes, and updates this data will enable auditors to easily access the necessary data while minimizing the cost and headaches associated with manually searching through all the accumulated information.
Proper certification management is also a key factor in maintaining both legal requirements and patient trust. Every piece of medical information pertaining to a patient must be kept secure and confidential; failure to do so can lead to a severe lack of trust between a patient and their healthcare provider (HCP). An effective certification management system performs two very important functions: it not only tracks and stores all the necessary data, but also reduces the chances of it being seen by unauthorized personnel; for the telemedicine industry, this is an invaluable advantage. Proper data management ensures that the patients’ trust in their HCP is not unilaterally tarnished.
In the end, while it may seem like a large financial burden to invest in a proper certification management solution, the cost of not integrating one undoubtedly outweighs the cost of investing in one. Failing to utilize a reliable management system can lead to costly financial and legal repercussions, a massive accumulation of unmanaged data, and a loss of patient trust. For the telemedicine industry, which is built upon the trust of their patients, avoiding integration of a top-notch certification management solution is simply not an option.
