Document Scanning Companies of America : Document Scanning

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Scanning Saves Time and Money

Document Scanning can reduce your overall costs of document management in the following areas

Document Retrieval
Cost Associated with Lost Files
Occupancy Costs

What Does It Cost to Retrieve a File

The University of Mass Medical Center published a study about various costs associated with storing and retrieving a file. It is referenced below. In the study, they identified five areas where the manual system affected costs.

1. The time it takes to retrieve a file takes too long. The slow retrieval time is reflected in delayed or lost income.

2. The manual system requires labor and space expense.

3. The manual system results in lost files

4. The manual system lacks the security requirements dictated by various laws

5. No back up exists of the manual files. This lack of backups to paper documents was brought to the fore front of the news during Hurricane Katrina. Lost medical files caused billions of dollars in expense associated with duplicating tests and trying to rebuild some sort of patient history.

What does Document Retrieval Require?

There are eleven steps all performed by a human being. There are eleven steps that can be done wrong. There are eleven steps that have to be paid for. There are eleven steps in which a document can be lost (misfiled or stolen) or a patient's private information could be compromised.

Receive a request	Travel to file storage area
Travel to the file storage area	Locate section, identify where the batch was originally located
Locate the appropriate section, identify and pull the file	File any new documents associated with the batch
Route file to the requisitioner	Re file in the folder/batch
Copy documentation requested	Travel back
Files returned

Once a file is lost or stolen, the cost to replace the file can be huge. If medical tests need to be redone, the costs can be in the thousands. If a court case is lost because a loan or other legal agreement is lost, the costs can be huge

Scanning Can Reduce Space Requirements for On-Site Storage

Scanned files are retrieved online. Therefore they don't generally need to be on hand in the office. The space taken up by the files is sometimes large enough, such that the removal of the files allow you to either release some office space or grow without moving.

Lost and Misfiled Records are No Longer a Problem Once Your Files are Scanned.

Once a hardcopy file is checked out, then you have to reply on your personnel to actually return it the storage location and secondly, accurately re file it to the proper location. Lost files can be over 20% of the files checked out. There are some ways to reduce that percentage down to 2%, but those come with their own additional cost.

Scanning can Allow Multiple People to Have Simultaneous Access to a File

When a file is checked out, no one else can look at it. This can be a tremendous problem. Scanned documents allow for multiple people to have access to the file at the same time.

Source U of Mass Medical Center Study

Scanned Files Are More Secure

BondedInsured

The benefit of document scanning to area businesses, hospitals, clinics, law firms and governmental agencies depends on the understanding of how to assign only those who are responsible with the access to the files. Where as in many cases, the entire office, outside contractors, custodians, etc had access to the paper files.

The pure number of people who have access to any given office leads to a similar number of people who are not authorized, but have access purely because the have access to the office.

For example, if the office is cleaned, the cleaning people have access to the files. Granted, file rooms can be off-limits to the cleaning staff. However, records that have been checked out, may be available to be compromised by virtue of not being protected by the person who checked out the files. If there is a special employee who is responsible for retrieving requested files, that person consequently has access to the confidential records

Typical Motivation for Starting Document Scanning Process.

Do you spend too much time retrieving records? Do some of your documents actually get lost? Files stored in a central location and that are reviewed periodically have a greater chance of being mis-filed or never refilled. The result is that it takes a great amount of time to find such files.
Do you need more immediate access to files? Is the amount of time it takes to retrieve a file from the file room simply too long? Do you need instant access to the files? Is immediate customer service becoming extremely important?
Do two or more people need access to your files at the same time?
Do your people traveling need to have access to your files?
Are you running out of space for the hard copy files? Are you looking at the costs of special filing systems, such as rolling files? Are you looking at the costs of acquiring more office space for file storage?
Do you feel a need to reduce your overall costs associated with storing, retrieving, refilling and the safety and security of your documents?
Are your files safe in their current storage location? Does your current storage methods comply with the various privacy laws such as HIPAA or GLB or Facta?
If you had a disaster such as a hurricane, flood or fire, are your current documents protected? Could you be back in business in a matter of days?

Scanning Protects the Privacy of Personal Information - The Law

Scanning your confidential documents can make it easier to restrict and control the access of documents to only those who are properly authorized. The laws state that it is the responsibility to do everything in your power to limit unnecessary access to confidential documents.

What better way to restrict the access to private confidential information than to remove the paper records and only allow authorized employees access to the digital images.

HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), was enacted in 1996 and includes provisions intended to safeguard the privacy of patient health records. HIPAA is a significant piece of legislation with onerous penalties. For a full text of the SUMMARY OF THE HIPAA PRIVACY RULE from the Department of Human Services, available online go to: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.rtf. See page 16 of this document in regards to specifically "securing records under lock and key.…and limiting access….."

Data Safeguards. A covered entity must maintain reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to prevent intentional or unintentional use or disclosure of protected health information in violation of the Privacy Rule and to limit its incidental use and disclosure pursuant to otherwise permitted or required use or disclosure. For example, such safeguards might include only allowing authorized personnel the access to confidential electronic records.

HIPAA LINKS
PENALTIES FOR HIPAA VIOLATIONS:
http://www.utmb.edu/compliance/hipaa/hipaa-overview.htm#penalties Medical Association
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/11805.html and Human Services
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.rtf

American

Health

GLB (Gramm Leach Bliley)

Gramm Leach Bliley (GLB) is another federal law with a much broader scope than HIPAA. The broad standards outlined in this law were designed to compel financial institutions to "respect the privacy of its customers and to protect the security and confidentiality of those customers' non-public personal information." Specifically, this law requires protection against "unauthorized access to or use of such records or information which could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any customer." See page 1, section (b) (3) of Section 501 of the Conference Report and Text of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Bill published by the Senate Banking Committee.

GLB LINKS
Senate Banking Committee
http://banking.senate.gov/conf/confrpt.htm Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/glbact

Federal

FACTA

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 also known as the FACT Act was signed into law on December 4, 2003. In general, the Act amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act (``FCRA''). The Act contains a number of provisions intended to combat consumer fraud and related crimes, including identity theft, and to assist its victims

The Disposal Rule of FACTA, as proposed, requires entities covered by the rule to take "reasonable measures" to protect against unauthorized access to or use of information. Scanning records and taking them off-site to a professional record storage company is one way to restrict access to such records, while at the same time making the records immediately available on the desk top screen.

FACTA LINKS
National Consumer Law Center
http://www.consumerlaw.org/initiatives/facta/nclc_analysis.shtml Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcrajump.htm Rights Organization
http://privacyrights.com/ar/FTC-DocDisposal.htm

Federal

Privacy