HIPAA Compliant Review Responses: An Ultimate Guide with Examples

What Is HIPAA-Compliant Review Response?

81% of people will check Google reviews before visiting a healthcare provider. This shows how important reviews are to the success of your business. But reviews alone will not get you an appointment.

In fact, users are wary of fake reviews. They will dig deeper to see if the reviews are authentic and genuine.

What differentiates fake reviews from real ones? There are many signs but the most important is engagement.

56% of people will choose the business that is responding to their reviews. Are the businesses responding to negative reviews? How long does a business take to address negative reviews, if at all?

Potential customers will form an opinion about the business by putting all of these pieces together. This is why healthcare practices need a reputation management strategy.

Acknowledging patient feedback and discussing concerns while also protecting their privacy can come as a challenge. Responding to reviews as a healthcare practice means ensuring that specific details about the patient’s confidentiality is maintained.

This is why practices need HIPAA-compliant review responses.

HIPAA-compliant review responses protect patient’s sensitive information such as medical history, diagnosis, and treatment plans. The goal is to provide acknowledgement in a professional way, encouraging them to discuss further details privately or offline.

In this article we will discuss how you can maintain a strong online presence and grow your practice’s reputation while maintaining HIPAA compliance.

Risks of Violating HIPAA When Responding to Reviews

HIPAA violations are a serious risk to the reputation of a healthcare organization. Patient data has to be protected under the law, even after the patient is no longer under the care of the practice.

Failure to do so can result in hefty fines, and legal repercussions.

When it comes to public review platforms, healthcare practices have to pay extra attention to how patient feedback is managed. This means avoiding any mention of a patient’s diagnosis, treatment or other personal details.

Even if the patient brings up personal details in their review, the practice cannot confirm or deny. Review responses have to be as general and neutral as possible without coming across as fake or inauthentic.

Common HIPAA Violations in Review Responses

Responding to reviews is essential for healthcare practices but doing so without a game plan can lead to serious HIPAA violations. Here are some of the most common HIPAA violations in review responses that you should look out for, as well as HIPAA-compliant responses you can use instead.

Mention Patient’s Medical Details

Don’ts:

“We are happy to hear your arthritis has improved since starting the course of corticosteroids”.

Do’s:

“Thank you for your feedback! We are here to support your healthcare goals.”

Confirm or Deny Patient’s Visit or Treatment

Don’ts:

“Thank you for visiting your practice last week! We are glad to hear you’re happy with your results from the teeth cleaning”

Do’s:

“Thank you for the kind words! We strive to provide excellent care to all our patients.”

Discuss Appointment Details

Don’ts:

“We are sorry to hear that your appointment on Tuesday was moved. We’ll do better next time!”

Do’s:

“Thank you for your feedback! We will look into the matter and improve our patient experience moving forward.”

Remain Neutral & Professional

Don’ts:

“Upon further review, we found that your appointment was not cancelled last minute. We did not get a confirmation from you and gave the spot to someone else.”

Do’s:

“We are sorry for the inconvenience. Please contact our office to check the status of your appointment.”

Discuss Sensitive Details in Reviews

Dont’s:

“Please provide your appointment number and ID so we can check the status of your lab results.”

Do’s:

“We would like to help you! Please call our office or leave us a private message so we can assist you further.”

Best Practices for HIPAA-Compliant Review Responses

Navigating HIPAA-compliant review responses can be a challenge because you want to protect patient privacy while also adequately addressing their concerns. Reviews are available to the general public which makes it even more important that healthcare practices comply with HIPAA regulations in all their interactions.

Here are some best practices to help you respond effectively to online reviews:

Do Not Confirm or Acknowledge Patient Visits

When you are responding to a patient’s review, try not to confirm the date or time of their appointment. You do not need to acknowledge that they ever visited your practice. Simply thank your patient for leaving a positive review.

In case of a negative review, express your regret for any inconvenience they faced, and encourage them to use a private channel to discuss the issue in further detail.

Keep Responses General and Professional

It is important that your responses don’t contain patient-specific details as this counts as a HIPAA violation. Even if the patient mentions what their health concerns were, or how they felt about their treatment, it is best to not acknowledge those details and stick to general statements in your responses.

Healthcare information such as diagnosis, treatment, medication and or procedures should never be acknowledged or brought up in a response.

Encourage Private Channels For Discussions

Healthcare practices often use HIPAA-compliant software such as DemandHub to chat with patients privately. This is also a great way to redirect discussion from the review section to a private and more secure channel.

In case of a complaint, the practice has to address the patient’s concerns and get back to them with a solution. Encourage the patient to share more details privately so that you can process their complaint and offer them a solution.

Remain Professional & Empathetic

Negative responses are just as important as positive ones in shaping your practice’s online reputation. No matter how frustrated a patient sounds in their review, it is crucial that you remain professional and empathetic in your response.

Avoid any defensive or dismissive comments. Express your commitment to the patient’s satisfaction and encourage them to use a private channel to discuss the issue in detail.

Use HIPAA-compliant Automation Tools

HIPAA-compliant reputation management tools such as DemandHub can help you respond to reviews more efficiently. As your practice grows, so does the number of online reviews, and the chance that you might accidentally disclose patient information.

Using DemandHub’s automated review response generator protects you from human error, and allows you to draft review response templates. This saves you time, reduces administrative workload, and enhances patient interactions all while maintaining HIPAA-compliance.

To learn more about DemandHub’s practice management features and HIPAA-compliant solutions, book a free demo today.