The Highest Quality Telephone Answering Service in the United States

Centratel

Telephone Answering Service

Nurse and patient talking about HIPAA and how is managed by Centratel Telephone Answering Service

HIPAA Breach Notification Rule Don’t Violate it!

November 8, 2017
Home Healthcare & Hospice, Medical
By Andi Freeman

Every month it seems another company is making headlines for HIPAA violations. In 2017, Chicago-based Presence Health kicked off the year agreeing to pay a whopping $475,000 for violating the Breach Notification System. This is the first violation of it’s kind and resulted when the healthcare system failed to report a breach in a timely manner. Other violations often happen when companies don’t properly protect their sensitive HIPAA-related information, but the Presence settlement underscores the variety of guidelines that healthcare systems, hospice groups, and home healthcare companies need to remain in compliance.

What is the Breach Notification Rule?

When healthcare information has been improperly disclosed or used, a HIPAA breach has occurred. The notification rule states when unsecured health information is breached, the entity covered under HIPAA (the hospital, hospice, home health care organization, etc.) must notify the Office of Civil Rights in a timely manner. If that doesn’t occur, as Presence Health demonstrated for us, a hefty fine and a plan for correcting the problem in the future could be on the horizon. The only way to protect yourself from the Breach Notification Rule is to put secure systems in place to contain, control, and guard HIPAA sensitive information.

The Effects of a HIPAA Breach

Of course we all like to see our systems as perfect but the truth is that breaches of HIPAA-sensitive healthcare information happen every day. There are currently 389 cases of HIPAA breach under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights, a branch of the US Department for Health and Human Services. Based on the cases under investigation, it seems healthcare providers are the most vulnerable and the majority of breaches occur through hacking or IT related events. Email and network servers are the most common places where stored and unsecured healthcare information is breached, but paper, equipment like laptops, and other portable electronic devices can also be the source of the breach.

Centratel and HIPAA Compliance

Centratel offers HIPAA compliant solutions to keep your home healthcare and hospice business insulated from potential breaches with Personal Health Information (PHI). Our answering service takes the important calls and relays them to your on call personnel or office via secure messaging or through encrypted email. Our answering service meets HIPAA, HITECH, and Omnibus requirements.

Let Centratel handle your HIPAA Compliance messaging so you can spend more time solving the needs and problems of your patients and provide the quality service you’ve built your home healthcare and hospice company on.

A Telephone Answering Service Representative taking calls at Centratel

Centratel, based in Bend, Oregon, is a leading national telephone answering service with a specialized focus on the Home Health and Hospice sector. This service offers unmatched support to a wide range of healthcare businesses throughout the United States, ensuring effective and seamless communication solutions around the clock. Renowned for its exceptional quality and reliability, Centratel is recognized as the top answering service in the Home Health and Hospice industry, consistently outperforming competitors in both performance and client satisfaction.

Taking the Next Step

For more specifics on cost, to start the onboarding process, or if you have questions, fill out this form with your basic information and if it’s during regular working hours (M-F 8am to 8pm EST or 5am to 5pm PST), we’ll get back to you within minutes. Or, during the above hours, you can simply call us at 800-664-7159 or send us an email to inquiry@centratel.com.

(And note: for a quick orientation on how we operate, take a moment to review one or more of the key points listed below.)

For more specifics on cost, to start the onboarding process, or to just talk to us, fill out this form with your basic information and if it’s during regular working hours (M-F 8am to 8pm EST or 5am to 5pm PST), we’ll get back to you within minutes. Or, during the above hours, you can simply call us at 800-664-7159 or send us an email to inquiry@centratel.com.

(And note: for a quick orientation on how we operate, take a moment to review one or more of the key points listed on the right.)

 
Terms of Service

Why Choose Centratel

BY SAM CARPENTER
January 1, 2025

1.CENTRATEL’S UNIQUE 30-DAY FREE TRIAL

Why is this important? Because it will provide you a truly accurate estimate of cost (we bill monthly), it will demonstrate our quality, and it gives both sides of this equation—you and Centratel—the necessary time to refine and perfect operational details.

Here’s a testimonial from a new medical client that had just finished their 30-day trial: “Of course, I love the cost as it is close to the amount I was allowed by the president of the company. I told him that if we did not continue with Centratel, I would resign as the Director of Customer Service, and I meant it. It’s a great fit. We have had NOT ONE complaint from a patient or in-house which, as you know, we received daily with our former answering service. I love you, Centratel, and the price. I’m ready to sign whatever documents you require. Thanks for the great service, and the free month! To a great partnership! -KB, Phoenix“

2.STATISTICALLY, THE BEST IN THE U.S.?

Answering service quality is 100% dependent on human action and reaction, and in the course of a single day a multitude of human decisions are made by the people who process the calls: Telephone Service Representatives, or TSRs. (Some answering services refer to them as “agents.” Others, “operators.”)

Like any other answering service, at Centratel we’re dealing with real live human beings and so human errors occur. But within this labor intensive service industry that is historically known for marginal quality, Centratel’s error rate is light years ahead of established standards. Our most recent Customer Reported Error Rate (October through December, 2024) was 1 customer-reported error for every 5,470 message transactions processed. That statistic is unmatched.

There’s no artificial intelligence manipulation, we do not offshore calls, and we were founded and have always operated within the United States. (Note that since early 2020, the COVID six-foot social distancing mandate drove thousands of small-to-medium sized answering services out of business. Large, foreign-owned multi-nationals, often disguised by the name of the local answering services they acquired, now thoroughly dominate the industry. Hence, an even further decline in general service quality. See this analysis.)

3.CUSTOMER SERVICE EXTRAORDINAIRE

Your concerns and requests will be instantly acted upon. It’s a work ethic that stands out in stark contrast from the general quality decline in human-to-human business-customer communications. You’ve seen it yourself, all around. At Centratel you will know the customer service people you’re working with by name, appreciating their special listening abilities as well as their take-action-now comportments i.e. see the testimonial in point #1 above. ‘Nuff said!

4.GETTING STARTED: IT’S SIMPLE AND FAST

Getting your new Centratel answering service 30-day free trial started is accomplished within 24-48 hours. From the start, your “onboarding” customer service representative will be with you every step of the way, listening carefully to your concerns, answering questions, and offering suggestions.

5.NEW TO USING AN ANSWERING SERVICE?

A majority of our current answering service accounts switched to us from another service because of quality problems. However, if you have not used a service before, you are not familiar with the options, benefits, and pitfalls. As noted, our 30-day free trial provides you—and us—plenty of time to precisely refine your desired message-taking and delivery protocols; to get things exactly the way you want them to be without any financial risk, undue pressure, or obligation. 

6.PRICING

Starting at $89 per month, our rates rank in the low to mid-range of the industry. For call processing, we charge by the “transaction unit” rather than the duration of time spent handling calls. Large “mega-services” operating in the U.S. prefer time billing because it ensures the company is compensated for lower-paid/high-turnover — and thus slower — agents. No matter the quality or how long they keep your callers on hold, they still make a profit. And yes, it can get expensive.

In any answering service, it takes a long time for a new agent to become fast, efficient, and stable. At Centratel, we pamper and reward experienced agents (via higher pay and great benefits) and therefore have extremely low staff turnover. Needless to say, experienced agents make fewer errors than trainees who learn on-the-job. And, transaction-unit billing is easy to understand. There is no room for fraudulence as in time-billing

7.ACCURATELY COMPARING ANSWERING SERVICE PRICING IS COMPLICATED

It’s apples and oranges. There isn’t an industry standard for billing, and each answering service has its own formula. Also, as noted above, some services charge by agent “time” while others charge by “work units.” Some others combine the two. At Centratel, we charge for the work we do, not by the time we spend. The raw truth is that the only reliable way to determine monthly cost for a new service is to use that service for a solid month. Most answering services offer a 7-day free trial or no trial at all.

8.BEWARE: MONTHLY OR 28-DAY BILLING?

Important! At Centratel, we use a “monthly” billing cycle in which invoices are compiled from the first day of a month to the last day of that month. When soliciting quotes from other services, be sure to ask if the base-rate charges are billed monthly or on a “28-day billing cycle.” There is no good reason for a 28-day billing cycle! It’s bait-and-switch: customers billed on a 28-day cycle actually receive thirteen billings per year and therefore the overall cost is higher.

9.NO CONTRACT AND SIMPLE TERMS OF SERVICE

We do not require a yearly contract for service because we believe you should have the opportunity to evaluate us real-time, without restraint. Our terms of service are simple and straight-forward.

10.VALUABLE FREE GIFT FOR CONTACTING US

If you take the time to discuss answering service with us, on the same day we will ship you a hardcover copy of Sam Carpenter’s bestselling book, Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, now in its 5th edition. We’ll send you a copy just for contacting us. (Sam is the founder and President of Centratel. December 1st 2024 marks his fortieth year of ownership.)