We typically add family members into the same account as their spouse and/or children if they have a spouse or child as an already established patient. This creates a challenging situation for HIPAA because adding a spouse into the family file as they appear for their first appointment gives us no opportunity to have their spouse sign an authorization form for sharing of data. If we can't get an authorization form, we enter the spouses into separate, individual accounts so that we won't share information between them. However, to do this means that we need to create a "dummy" account for the person who holds the insurance and add them into their spouse and/or children's account as a non-patient. We would love to have a feature that enables us to set up each patient on their own individual account and be able to link the insurance information from one patient through to another family file without having to create a dummy non-patient account. This makes the database bigger than is needed and can cause confusion because you need to make sure to pick the correct (real) patient when setting up appointments, etc.
Guest
Thank you for the recommendation, we will consider this for a potential future release.
Being able to link families together! We have patients that have separate files from their half/stepsiblings, but are brought by the same parent or guardian together. Linking these would help with confusion. They don't need to be linked for the patients, so as to keep HIPAA compliant, but for on our end to have some way to connect accounts. This is especially helpful when it comes to divorce, new marriage, etc.
If a patient could be a part of more than one family for insurance purposes, that would be huge. so we don't have patients in more than once.
Foster children also need a better family file system. We should be able to more easily adjust family relations, and move patients, rather than creating endless lists of guarantors.
Have a section in the family file to allow us to add a name and contact information for a HIPAA contact. That way we don't have to add flags or non-person's to the acct.