The Highest Quality Telephone Answering Service in the United States

Centratel

Telephone Answering Service

hospice answering service

HIPAA Compliance with a Home Health and Hospice Answering Service

September 3, 2023
Home Healthcare & Hospice
By Centratel

The Home Health and Hospice sector stands on the front lines of patient care, ensuring comfort, dignity, and proper medical attention for those in need. In an industry that relies heavily on timely and confidential communication, it’s crucial to have a reliable partner in managing those interactions. That’s where Centratel’s Home Health and Hospice Answering Service comes in, offering a robust solution tailored specifically to the unique needs of the Home Health and Hospice sector.

HIPAA Compliance: An Absolute Must

When it comes to healthcare, patient confidentiality isn’t just a courtesy – it’s the law. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets stringent guidelines to ensure the privacy of patient data. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines and irreparable damage to reputation. In 2020, it was estimated that over 60% of breaches in the healthcare sector were due to unauthorized access or disclosure, which includes communication mismanagement.

How Does Centratel Ensure HIPAA Compliance?

  1. Secure Systems: Our systems are fortified with the latest security protocols to prevent unauthorized access. Regular updates and monitoring ensure vulnerabilities are kept at bay.
  2. Trained Professionals: Every team member at Centratel’s Home Health and Hospice Answering Service undergoes rigorous training on HIPAA regulations and how to handle sensitive patient data.
  3. Regular Audits: We perform regular internal audits to assess and improve our compliance strategies. Continuous improvement is a hallmark of our service.
  4. Data Encryption: From the moment a call lands in our system to the instant it’s delivered to you, the data is encrypted to ensure no unauthorized access.

Why Home Health and Hospice Providers Choose Centratel

  • Reliability: Missed calls in the Home Health and Hospice sector can be life-altering. Centratel’s Home Health and Hospice Answering Service ensures no call goes unanswered.
  • Focused Service: Unlike general answering services, we focus on Home Health and Hospice, understanding the intricacies and nuances of the industry.
  • Cost-Effective: Outsourcing to a specialized service like ours reduces overheads, preventing the need for in-house 24/7 staff.

Invest in Quality, Invest in Centratel

The Home Health and Hospice sector deserves an answering service that’s not just good but exceptional. An answering service that understands the importance of every call, ensures every message reaches its destination promptly and protects patient data with the utmost seriousness.

If you want to guarantee that level of service for your patients and their loved ones, then it’s time to get a price quote from Centratel. Discover how we can be the difference between satisfactory and outstanding communication in the Home Health and Hospice sector.

Looking to elevate your communication standards? Don’t wait! Dive deeper into Centratel’s Home Health and Hospice Answering Service and ensure the best for your patients today.

Image by Freepik

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
December 1, 2024

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 (July through September, 2024) was 1 customer-reported error for every 6,077 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 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.

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.)