The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws were written, among other reasons, to protect individuals’ privacy. All medical practices are required to uphold patient privacy by following HIPAA guidelines. This includes scheduling appointments.
Receptionists can violate the privacy guidelines when making appointments at their front desks, by repeating addresses, names, or other protected information. Certainly these lapses are unintentional. Nevertheless, we are asking patients to help us comply with these guidelines by making appointments through our Central Appointments line at 651-256-6714.
There will be times when our receptionists are asked to help out due to heavy volume. If the PYAM staff member helping you with an appointment asks more questions than usual it is probably their effort to keep your private information private. Please try to be patient if this happens. We want to answer all our patients’ calls as soon as possible but we have to abide by the law.
You can help yourself and others when calling for an appointment by having the following information at hand:
- What kind of visit does your child need? A well exam? Or does he need to be seen for an illness or injury. Tell us the symptoms.
- How many children do you wish to schedule?
- Tell us your preferred doctor and clinic location.
- As a courtesy to our physicians and other
patients please call to cancel appointments that you can’t keep—someone else might need that time with the doctor.