Improving Medical Practice Management by Recording Interactions on Microsoft Teams

COVID-19 has changed virtually every aspect of life, including healthcare. For medical practices, it has accelerated the adoption of telehealth. In fact, according to an October 2020 CDC report, during the first quarter of 2020, the number of telehealth visits increased by 50%, and by week 13, telehealth visits had increased by 154%, as compared with the same periods in 2019.(1) Furthermore, the CDC reported that telehealth visits more than doubled in March 2020, with 1.6 million telehealth encounters between January and March of 2020.(2)

Telehealth claim lines increased by 8336% nationally, from 0.15% of medical claim lines in April 2019 to 13% in April 2020.

FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker uses a database of more than 31 billion private healthcare claim records—the largest such repository in the nation—to track the month-by-month evolution of telehealth. According to the tracker, telehealth claim lines increased by 8336% nationally, from 0.15% of medical claim lines in April 2019 to 13% in April 2020. (A claim line is an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim.)(3)

The growth is expected to continue at a fast pace, with telehealth on trend to drive $29 billion in healthcare services in 2020, according to Doximity’s 2020 State of Telemedicine Report. This report also predicted that up to $106 billion in current U.S. healthcare spending could be virtualized by 2023(4) (Figure 1). 

Figure 1. Numonix IXCloud call listing. Numonix IXCloud organizes Microsoft Teams interactions by date, caller, agent, and more.

Help Ensure Regulatory Compliance and Maintain an Audit-Ready State

With the increase in telehealth and other online interactions, medical practices have to meet compliance by appropriately recording their online interactions, including voice chat/instant messaging as well as screen and video meetings (Figure 2). Whether the interactions are with patients, pharmacies, specialists, or others, to meet compliance, medical professionals must choose interaction recording solutions that meet the following requirements:

• Protection of patients’ private and confidential information. Sensitive information, such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, and so on, must be masked to comply with HIPAA, PCI, and other regulations.

• Security capabilities that allow permissions-based access to recordings, enable removing access when there are staffing changes, and provide appropriate encryption.

Figure 2. Numonix IXCloud share recording. Numonix IXCloud for Microsoft Teams enables password-protected sharing of files for involved parties.

Because practices never know when an audit may occur, having a compliant interaction recording solution makes it possible to maintain an audit-ready state at all times. This not only helps protect the practice, but it also helps protect individual professionals, even if other business associates are not compliant. Having recordings securely stored and available to authorized parties can also meet managed healthcare requirements (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Numonix IXCloud compliance recording. Numonix IXCloud enables compliance recording that includes encryption, digital signature, search and playback restrictions, and more.

Improve Liability Protection and Reduce Risk

Having securely stored and easy-to-locate interaction recordings helps improve liability protection and reduce risk. Referring to recordings can improve procedural accuracy, including confirmation of prescribed medication, verification of consultations, and assurance of integrity in patient examinations. In the case of disputes or legal situations, recordings also can help resolve issues by providing verification of the actual interaction and eliminating “he said/she said” scenarios.

Your interaction recording solution should allow you to do the following:

• Securely share interaction recordings;

• Provide the first defense against illegitimate legal claims;

• Easily differentiate between honest oversights and false or malicious claims or accusations from profit-​seekers; and

• Reduce the cost of lawsuits by providing interaction records as part of discovery.

Ensure Proper Procedures in All Areas of Medical Practices

To ensure proper procedures, medical practices must record interactions by all departments, including patient transfers, collections, appointment scheduling, billing, and accuracy of prescriptions. By automatically recording every interaction by every department, each interaction can be captured as allowed by law (Figure 4), including the following:

• Doctor–patient consultations by phone, screen sharing, chat/IM or video;

• Third-party interactions, including specialists, pharmacies, labs, hospitals and clinics;

• Communication with paramedic or emergency response personnel; and

• Life flight dispatch and related communication.

Figure 4. Numonix IXCloud Dashboard. Numonix IXCloud for Microsoft Teams includes a dashboard for at-a-glance usage information, including monthly call volume and more.

Improved Staff Training Leading to Quality Patient Care

Recording interactions helps improve the quality of patient care by ensuring that the medical staff is adhering to policies and procedures. The recordings also help manage and protect the practice’s reputation by providing a solid resource to do the following:

• Better train staff by reviewing interactions with staff members;

• Utilize customized scorecards for insightful evaluations;

• Reveal and resolve skill gaps;

• Resolve misunderstandings and disputes;

• Monitor live interactions; and

• Improve patient dispute resolution.

Third-Party Dispute Resolution—Even with Insurance Companies

Recording conversations with third parties, such as insurance companies, pharmacies, and specialists, makes it possible to share those recordings when needed. For insurance companies, the recordings provide support for billing, coding, and audit issues. They also help avoid or reduce fraud and abuse. With recordings, you can confidently resolve issues with nearly any third party.

You also can integrate your recordings with Call Center Online Counseling to help improve wellness and chronic illness consultations. Within the recording solution, you can create templates to help call center agents provide appropriate guidance to patients by following approved scripts. If your practice provides services to government-funded programs, having interaction recordings can provide the required proof of service. In addition, you can integrate your recordings with third-party applications such as customer resource management (CRM) programs.

Choosing a Microsoft Teams–Compatible Interaction Recording Solution

Microsoft Teams is an online communication platform. Microsoft offers a specific Teams solution designed specifically for healthcare professionals. Enabling simple, secure collaboration and communication, it delivers chat, video, voice, and healthcare tools in a single hub and supports compliance with HIPAA, HITECH, and other regulations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the adoption of Microsoft Teams, increasing from 44 million active users in March of 2020 to more than 145 million daily active users by April of 2021, according to Microsoft.(5) The following are key features to look for and important aspects to avoid when choosing a Microsoft Teams-compatible interaction recording solution:

• What to look for:

  • A Certified Microsoft Partner, which means that Microsoft has vetted the vendor and ensures interoperability with the Teams platform as well as required security;

  • Partner who adheres to HIPAA, PCI (credit cards), and other regulatory requirements;

  • A solution that records all modalities (e.g., screen sharing, chat/IM, video) as well as all call scenarios (e.g., public switched telephone network [PSTN], federated, meetings, and every type of Teams call); and

  • A cloud-based solution that is simple to configure and use with remote support.

• What to avoid:

  • Solutions that are not certified by Microsoft, because their interactions may not fully integrate into the Teams platform and provide unreliable records or storage;

  • Degraded services or nonscalable solutions, which also may result in unreliable recordings;

  • Services that require a distributed architecture, because they will be difficult to manage and may not reliably record interactions; and

  • Hardware-based solutions, because they require a higher level of on-site management.

Amazingly Affordable Subscription-Based Interaction Recording

Given all of the benefits it provides, an interaction recording solution is amazingly affordable. For example, a 10-user interaction recording solution that records all modalities (i.e., voice, chat/IM, screen) should cost no more than $1500 per year, including the cloud-based storage for your recordings. It should be delivered as a subscription-based software-as-a-service, giving you the benefit of paying as you go plus remote support from your vendor.

Getting Started

To find the right Microsoft Teams interaction recording solution for your medical practice, visit the Microsoft Teams Policy-Based Recording website, where you can see a list of Microsoft-certified vendors or contact your Microsoft Teams integrator.(6)

References

1. Koonin LM, Hoots B, Tsang CA, et al. Trends in the use of telehealth during the emergence of the COVID-19 Pandemic—United States, January–March 2020.” MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(43);1595-1599; www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm69​43a3.htm .

2. Jercich K. CDC: Telehealth visits more than doubled in March 2020. Healthcare IT News. November 2, 2020. www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cdc-telehealth-visits-more-doubled-march-2020 . Accessed April 30, 2021.

3. Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker. FAIR Health. January 1, 2021. www.fairhealth.org/states-by-the-numbers/telehealth .

4. 2020 State of telemedicine report: examining patient perspectives and physician adoption of telemedicine since the covid-19 pandemic. Doximity. September 2020. http://c8y.doxcdn.com/image/upload/v1599769894/Press%20Blog/Research%20Reports/2020-state-telemedicine-report.pdf

5. Microsoft Practice Development Playbook. Microsoft Teams now has 145 million daily active users, CEO Satya Nadella said on the Microsoft’s Q3 earnings call with analysts (4/2021).

6. Introduction to Teams policy-based recording for callings [sic] and meetings—Microsoft Teams. docs.microsoft.com. May 11, 2020. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-recording-policy .

Ten Key Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Microsoft Teams Interaction Recording Solution

• Does the solution offer fully managed, native Azure Software-as-a-Service?

• Does it have the ability to natively record audio, video, and screen sharing?

• Is it a Microsoft Teams Compliance Recording Certified solution?

• Is it entirely remote, requiring no on-site hardware or software?

• Does it require no server management or maintenance within your organization?

• Does it include GDPR, MiFID II and HIPAA compliance with built-in recording notifications and 256-bit encryption?

• Will the service comply with data sovereignty laws?

• Does it provide the ability to analyze interactions in the cloud?

• Does it have the ability to instantly scale to support business growth?

• Does it offer API framework to integrate with other applications?