Timeero: Best HIPAA-Compliant Caregiver Management Software
Samson Kiarie
Last update on:
April 18, 2024 1:41 AM
Published on:
When exploring options for caregiver management software, it’s important to evaluate each solution’s provided features as well as how strictly it complies with HIPAA and EVV regulations.
To avoid potential penalties and fines for breaching regulatory standards, your entity and its business associates, as well as the apps you use to manage caregivers, must be HIPAA-compliant.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how Timeero — the best HIPAA-compliant app for home care — enables caregivers to operate within the strict confines of healthcare industry regulations. We’ll show you how its features are configured to protect patient information while promoting efficiency and quality of service.
Want to Ensure HIPAA Compliance?
Timeero is designed specifically for home health care agencies and caregivers.
What Makes The Best HIPAA-Compliant Caregiver Management Software?
The best HIPAA-compliant caregiver management software must meet two prerequisites. First, it must offer the features that caregivers need to deliver quality care to patients while satisfying the expectations of their loved ones. The features each entity requires varies based on their unique needs. Some of the vital tools needed include:
Caregiver scheduling
Time tracking
Location tracking
Mileage tracking
Workforce management features
Patient or client care management tools
Digital record-keeping
Wide array of software integrations
The second prerequisite that must be met is that the caregiver management software must comply with the underlying healthcare industry regulations, such as HIPAA and EVV compliance.
Timeero fulfills both requirements. It has the features your health and home care business need to streamline operations and is HIPAA and EVV-compliant.
The act has become a living culture that businesses in the healthcare sector must implement to safeguard the security, privacy, and integrity of protected health information (PHI). The compliance standards cover:
Covered entities (CEs): Any business directly involved in the provision or administration of healthcare services, such as a healthcare provider, health care plan, academic medical centers, or health care clearinghouse.
Business Associates (BAs): Third-party service providers, such as Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors and IT service providers, like Timeero.
Timeero’s compliance with HIPAA regulations is driven by the innate desire to help healthcare businesses navigate the industry's tricky regulatory standards. Here’s how Timeero supports your quest for HIPAA compliance.
Data Encryption
HIPAA requires healthcare providers to use systems that encrypt electronic protected health information to uphold the confidentiality and integrity of PHI.
To meet this regulatory standard, Timeero encrypts personal identifiable data in transit and at rest. This ensures that pertinent patient information used, mentioned, or stored within the app is safe and secure.
User Access Controls
HIPAA requires you to only give employees access to the data they need to perform their jobs. To achieve this, Timeero allows managers, administrators, and healthcare agency owners to assign specific access roles.
You can edit user permissions so that only authorized employees can access specific files, documents, and other areas of the app that may reveal sensitive information. For example, by default, users with employee roles cannot access reports.
Timeero allows you to assign user roles to prevent unauthorized access to protected health information.
You can assign them access, but we recommend against doing so. Some reports, such as employee timesheets, contain notes and attachments that may disclose sensitive information about patients and their locations. You can easily limit access to sensitive reports and documents to help manage the disclosure of sensitive data.
Additionally, users with employee roles cannot access the “Who’s working” tab. This tab may display patient details that can allow unauthorized people to access confidential information such as patient addresses.
Protection of Patients’ Names and Addresses
When creating Timeero jobs and tasks, you might add the patients’ names and addresses in note fields to facilitate care taking visits. According to HIPAA guidelines, a patient's name and address are protected health information identifiers, and their use and disclosure should be regulated appropriately.
Timeero offers a HIPAA-compliant software solution for healthcare businesses.
Timeero has configured tasks and jobs to be accessible only to the assigned care nurse or medical practitioner. Even if you manage hundreds of care providers and other subordinate staff, they won't be able to see tasks that are not assigned to them. This ensures that patient information is only available to assigned employees.
Protection of Sensitive Information Within Chats
Timeero is HIPAA-compliant, so any information shared on the Message Blast is protected by default. Still, we’ve designed Message Blast to be a one-way communication tool with only manager or administrator roles being allowed to send messages.
For example, a manager can share sensitive information with a care nurse, but the nurse can’t reply or forward that message to other employees. The unidirectional flow of messages makes it easier to regulate patient information disclosure.
Timeero is EVV Compliant
Section 12006(a) of the 21st Century Cure Act states that Medicaid home health services (HHCS) and personal care services (PCS) that require in-home visits by practitioners must implement Electronic Visit Verification (EVV). This act outlines the requirements that health services must adhere to. You can read the fine details in our comprehensive EVV compliance guide.
The drawback of this act is that agencies which conduct in-home visits must put in place a system to verify six critical elements of each visit, electronically:
Type of service performed
Individual receiving the service
Individual providing the service
Date of the service
Time the service begins and ends
Location of service delivery
EVV solutions leverage the Global Positioning System (GPS) to verify in-home visits. Most of these solutions require care nurses to clock in and out at every patient’s home to track when they begin and end services.
This tracking method is prone to errors, as it depends on the nurses’ ability to remember to clock in or out. When nurses are heavily invested and focused on providing care, they might forget to clock in or out, leading to inaccurate EVV records.
Timeero’s EVV system offers a Segmented Tracking feature to help home healthcare businesses verify in-home visits. This functionality helps you accurately track EVV records without requiring the nurse to clock in and out at every patient’s address.
Here’s how Segmented Tracking works:
Segmented Tracking
To understand how segmented Tracking works, let's suppose you have assigned a home health care nurse to five patients daily. You can create the nurse’s visits as jobs on Timeero and set a geofence around each patient’s home. A geofence is a virtual boundary used to mark a patient’s address to improve the accuracy of EVV records.
Segmented Tracking allows you to record the details needed to address the key elements of nurse visits.
With this feature you can also name the jobs based on the type of service the nurse is scheduled to administer. Examples of job names include Jane — Intravenous Therapy, Veronica — Ostomy Care, or Knight — well-being. This will help you take care of the first three elements of EVV verification: the patient’s name, the nurse’s name, and the type of service performed.
Segmented Tracking will also document the remaining verification elements, such as date and time of service. Unlike traditional home care software, Timeero requires the nurse to clock in once at the start of their shift and focus on providing home care services without distraction.
The app tracks the nurse’s daily route, from the first to the last patient visit. This is where segmented tracking really shines– Timeero segments the nurse's trip according to the visits and stops they make along the way.
The segmented tracking report shows timestamps when a nurse enters and leaves each patient visit. The app automatically computes the nurse's time at each address for accurate client invoicing.
Timeero’s Unique Features For Caregiver Management
Besides verifying in-home visits, Timeero helps streamline the workflow of health care management operations, namely scheduling and location tracking. It also automates time and mileage tracking for accurate remuneration. Let’s discuss the Timeero’s key features for home healthcare services:
Care Nurse Scheduling
Whether monitoring a patient's general health, administering medication, wound dressing, or managing pain, you must ensure the most qualified care nurse is at the patient’s home in time. This is where Timeero—the best caregiver software solution for staff scheduling—comes in handy.
Timeero offers a user-friendly cloud-based software solution for scheduling caregivers and other staff.
Before you build a schedule, you can categorize your care nurses and practitioners based on experience and area of expertise. You can have different groups for physical therapy, medical social work, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, private duty home care, and home health aide services.
The easy-to-use scheduling module enables managers to create jobs and tasks and assign them to relevant practitioners. Suppose a patient requests a home care service. The manager will click on a day on the scheduling calendar, add the task details, and leave a description to let the nurse know what is expected.
When assigning jobs to nurses, the manager can select the relevant user group depending on the type of service required. For example, if the patient requires occupational therapy, the manager can pick a nurse from the occupational therapy group.
Once the manager publishes the schedule, the assigned nurse receives in-app and email notifications. The nurse can accept or reject the task based on availability. This ensures you find a replacement quickly to prevent no-shows that can often lead to service disruption.
Timeero immediately notifies nurses via email and in-app messages when they are assigned to a shift.
Timeero scheduling allows managers and agency owners to set recurring shifts for services that require the nurse to visit the patient multiple times. For example, if a nurse is administering medication and needs to see the patient the whole week, you can set the shift to repeat on specific days.
GPS Time Tracking
Ditch inaccurate pen-and-paper tracking and embrace Timeero’s automatic time tracker. The time tracker works seamlessly on employees' Android and iOS smartphones, making it super easy to track time worked for full, part-time, or per diem nurses.
Timeero offers a flawless user experience and requires little to no training during nurse onboarding.
You can also use the Timeero kiosk app on an iPad, which lets you make the most of the facial recognition feature. It takes images of employees as they clock in at the point-of-care and compares them to their profile photo. In case of a mismatch, the app notifies the manager and flags the time entry.
The time tracker attributes hours worked in each session to the job/task the nurse selected when clocking in. It also automatically sorts employees' work hours into regular, overtime, or double hours.
The app then computes employee earnings based on their pay rate. This saves you many hours you would have normally spent manually computing each nurse’s take-home pay. At the end of the month, you can generate timesheet reports to reimburse employees accurately. This can significantly improve employee morale and job satisfaction, boosting employee retention rates.
Timeero Break Tracking
In addition, Timeero enables you to enforce your break tracking policy. Health care services with a workforce in California don’t have to set their break tracking rules manually. The app is equipped with a California break tracking tool, which you can implement with a few clicks.
Timeero enables you to enforce break tracking policies to remain in full compliance with relevant labor laws.
You don’t have to worry about future litigation for violating break policies. Timeero has implemented measures to ensure employees adhere to the legally required break time guidelines. For example, if a nurse just started a mid-day lunch break, they can’t end it before the required 30 minutes elapse.
Employees in California will have to sign the daily sign-off form before clocking out as proof of their adherence to break rules. In case a violation occurs, the nurse must leave an explanation and sign the form using Timeero’s digital signature feature. You can use this information as evidence in case of future lawsuits.
Real-Time Location Tracking
Caregivers conducting in-home visits face unique challenges. Sometimes, they have to drive through potentially dangerous locations to deliver services. Timeero lets you track the nurses’ real-time location to manage their safety.
You can monitor nurses visiting dangerous zones and track their movement using the “Who’s working” dashboard. The tab displays each nurse’s real-time location and can help pinpoint nurses who need help.
Timeero’s web-based dashboard lets you monitor the real-time location of each staff member.
For example, if a nurse remains at the same spot on the road for an unusually long time, it might be a sign they need help. If a nurse wanders off course, it might be a sign they can’t find the patient’s home. You can then contact the nurse to provide assistance and enhance their safety.
Location tracking can also help improve service quality through geographical-based scheduling. If a patient calls in with an emergency, you can quickly spot the most proximate nurse to attend to the case. This ensures you reach the patient quickly and could potentially save a life.
Mileage Tracking
If you require per diem, part-time, or full-time care nurses to use personal vehicles, you must compensate them for mileage. For fair reimbursement, mileage must be tracked accurately and contain the necessary details to meet the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines. Timeero’s mileage tracker helps you achieve that.
The mileage tracker uses motion detection and a minimum speed threshold — the default speed threshold is 4 Mph. The nurse doesn’t have to lift a finger to track miles; they only need to clock in and drive. Timeero will track every drive exceeding 4 Mph and disregard anything below that, such as when the nurse is walking or stuck in traffic.
Timeero saves you many hours of manual reimbursement calculation. It computes the nurse’s reimbursement based on miles driven and standard IRS mileage rates. At the end of the month, you'll only need to generate the reimbursement report and export it to your payroll or accounting software for immediate reimbursement.
Offline Tracking
For EVV compliance, it’s vital to track every element of the nurse’s visit, regardless of whether there’s an internet connection. This makes Timeero’s offline tracking a preferred feature among care nurses, especially with those visiting patients in remote areas.
With Timeero’s offline mode, you don’t have to worry about the nurse running out of data bundles in the field. When the nurse’s device loses internet connection, Timeero’s offline mode springs into action instantly. The app continues to track the trip, storing the information locally on the nurse’s device.
When the device reconnects to the internet, the mobile app instantly syncs the data to your cloud system. Not a single byte of data will be lost, and you’ll have all the information you need to stay compliant with the industry’s regulatory standards.
Timeero is The Best HIPAA And EVV-Compliant Caregiver Management Software Solution
Timeero completes the puzzle in your healthcare business’ HIPAA and EVV compliance jigsaw. Being the best caregiver management software, we went over and above to officially get HIPAA compliance to elevate the reputation of the healthcare business and home care agency using our solution.
With Timeero’s ability to remain compliant with healthcare regulations, you’ll confidently build a culture of patient privacy and safety within your healthcare business. Coupled with Timeero’s workforce management tools, compliance improves patient satisfaction and grows your bottom line. More importantly, it eliminates the chances of encountering HIPAA violations.
Start a 14-day free trial today to get a first-hand feel for Timeero’s capabilities. No credit card is required — create an account and start using the app immediately. Book a free consultation call to learn how to customize Timeero to your specific needs.
Best HIPAA-Compliant Caregiver Management Software: FAQs
Is Timeero HIPAA-Compliant?
Yes, Timerero is HIPAA compliant and has set up safeguards to keep personal healthcare information mentioned within chats or stored within the app safe and secure.
What Are the Top Features To Look For in Caregiver Management Software?
HIPAA compliance, staff scheduling, client management, time tracking, location tracking, mileage tracking, and reasonable pricing are the top features to look for in caregiver management software.
Grow Your Home Healthcare Business With Timeero
Ensure compliance, track and manage caregivers efficiently.
Samson is a mathematician turned content marketer specializing in SaaS and Tech content. He focuses on the practical aspects of software systems while keeping abreast of the industry’s cutting-edge principles to create informative and engaging content. When he’s not writing, Samson spends time playing or watching soccer.
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