Since your practice will need to collect patient data and feedback at different points in their care lifecycle, why not offer them a non-tedious and secure way to share their information? With a HIPAA compliant forms builder you cancreate digital formsthat can be easily shared with your patients, eliminating the risk of losing paper forms or submitting them incomplete.
To stay ahead of the times and deliver amodern patient experience, you must consider hipaa patient forms that can save your staff from a mountain of paperwork and valuable time performing mundane tasks like data entry.
- What is a HIPAA compliant form builder?
- 5 components of a HIPAA compliant form
- How to create effective HIPAA compliant forms
- 15 best HIPAA compliant form builders to choose from
- Bonus: 2 services you’re familiar with
Let’s get started with understanding what a HIPAA compliant form builder is and how you can design them effectively to see quick turnaround times with your form submissions.
What is a HIPAA compliant form builder?
A HIPAA compliant form builder is a tool that facilitates online form creation that healthcare entities use to collect their patient health information (PHI). They also provide a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA), allowing you to hit the ground running in the most secure way possible.
Today, as medical and dental practices make the switch to digital forms, its implications on data security and privacy are a serious concern. Using a HIPAA compliant form builder removes the ambiguity from the process, allowing you to send out onboarding forms, satisfaction surveys, and other forms that are encrypted and therefore safely transmitted only within the authorized network of people.
HIPAA compliance applies to the following groups of individuals or organizations:
- Healthcare providers including dentists, doctors, and other medical providers
- Healthcare facilities like hospitals and medical clinics
- Health plans including health insurance companies and health maintenance organizations like Medicare and Medicaid
- Clearinghouses that act as the middlemen between healthcare providers and insurance payers
- Business Associates that provide technical support to healthcare providers including sending out emails, text messages, and creating online forms
Not following HIPAA guidelines can lead to a nightmare of lawsuits and large fines that will tarnish your image as a healthcare practice and compromise patient data for not using a secure form builder software.
5 components of a HIPAA compliant forms
HIPAA mandates a set of minimum requirements that you ought to have in your digital form to qualify as a secure medium of sharing and storing electronic patient data. Let us look at what these are:
- Access:Patient files must only be shared with authorized personnel to mitigate risk and improve efficiency as it reduces the amount of information that needs to be processed.
- Transfer of Data:Since patient information is being shared across healthcare providers, insurance companies, and other parties who are allowed access to them, the data has to be encrypted to keep it safe from perpetrators who may try to hack the system.
- Data storage:Data must be encrypted when it is being stored in your system to avoid data breaches.
- Backup data:In the past we have seen even robust systems being broken into, making it extremely critical that you always have your patient data backed up so that it can be recovered in case of an unfortunate incident.
- Disposal:Have a system in place to permanently delete patient data that is no longer needed.
Once the backend process of your HIPAA patient forms is in order, you can start looking at ways to create powerful forms that your patients will get to see.
How to create effective HIPAA compliant authorization forms
While data safety and integrity must still be your topmost concern, your ultimate goal is to receive accurate data from your patients. Let us look at the following strategies that will help you create powerful HIPAA compliant authorization forms that check off all the boxes (pun intended!).
1. Using a HIPAA compliant forms builder
Since you are collecting sensitive PHI and confidentiality is key, using a HIPAA-compliant form builder is the easiest and most secure method to collect and share data with authorized parties. All HIPAA compliant form builders also come with a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) that is mandatory when you need tosend out communication related to the patient’s care.
2. Collect HIPAA compliant electronic signatures
WithHIPAA compliant authorization forms, you can offer the convenience of getting your patients to digitally sign from their device so that they have time to go through the information in detail and your staff has all the paperwork in order even before theycome in for their appointment. This also gives you the ability to collect consent from patients without them needing to come into the office!
3. Collecting all patient information in digital patient intake forms online
When you are onboarding a patient, you want to get all the information that you need to deliver a fair diagnosis of their health concern. Since it can be overwhelming for the patient to fill in all the information at once, you can divide yourpatient intake forms onlineinto multiple sections which can be saved and completed when the patient finds time. While this may sometimes cause a delay in receiving back patient intake forms, you are ensured of getting completed forms and delivering a pleasant onboarding experience for your patients.
4. Restricting form field entry
When designing your HIPAA compliant form, you want to receive responses in a standard format and reject input if it isn’t. The more descriptive you allow your patients to be with their answers, it will call for more time analyzing and fixing typographical errors in the backend. For example, when asking for your patient’s date of birth, you can set the format to be date-type, allowing them to click on the calendar icon to select the right date. This restricts their input and ensures that you get accurate data with few errors.
5. Making form fields required
Making the input fields in your online form mandatory will ensure that you never receive incomplete forms, as patients won’t be able to proceed further or hit the submit button until they complete all the required fields. Along with making sure that you receive all details of your patient’s medical history at the outset, it also reduces the chance that your patients forget to declare critical information.
6. Using conditional logic in forms
Patient forms that use conditional logic allows you to set up dynamic, responsive forms that simplify the user experience. Rather than having one long form with all fields, you can have smaller sections, that automatically close or open once the user advances past a stage in the process. Similarly, you can set up your forms so that redundant form fields are hidden from the users display, and they only have to view the fields that apply to them. This not only simplifies the process for your patients but also improves the accuracy of the data you receive.
7. Autocomplete forms
Having dynamic forms that automatically complete repeated information or remove redundant form fields make the experience much easier for new patients completing long forms. Similarly, for existing patients (that you already have PHI for), you can pre-populate future form fields for them, saving them time completing subsequent questionnaires. Not only does this reduce the length of your form by asking redundant questions, but also ensures quick turnaround times for form completion.
8. Only ask for required information
Directly flowing from the point above, your forms must only ask questions relevant to the intent of sending out the questionnaire. For example, you don’t have to ask your patients to fill in their phone number and email address every time they are filling out paperwork. Your front desk staff could occasionally confirm these details in person when they come in for an appointment.
9. Offering the option to upload their photo IDs
Since your patients may already have a soft copy of their photo ID and other documents like insurance papers saved on their devices, you can offer them the convenience of uploading them while filling out their intake form. This not only saves them the trouble of printing or scanning these documents, but allows you to complete onboarding before they actually come into your office.
15 best HIPAA compliant form builders to choose from
While dealing with PHI, you have to stay vigilant and abreast of any changes to compliance standards for your patient and your own peace of mind. With HIPAA compliant form builder softwares, you can rest assured that patient information is kept secure, and can focus your efforts elsewhere.
1.NexHealth
Best for:Creating onlinepatient intake, medical history, authorization, and consent forms
Cost:Contact for quote
With NexHealth, you not only get an easy-to-use HIPAA compliant forms builder, but you also get a full feature patient experience platform withappointment schedulingand marketing capabilities. Your practice can digitize existing forms or easily create new ones that eliminate double data entry with two-way integration as the responses instantly sync with your practice management and electronic health records (EHR) systems.
2.FormAssembly
Image Credit:FormAssembly
Best for:Creating web-to-anything forms with Salesforce
Cost:$99 - $249/mo | Custom Pricing for Enterprise
FormAssembly makes the data collection process easy with their drag and drop form creator that is fully responsive across browsers and mobile devices. Governments and organizations in the healthcare, financial services, higher education, and non-profit space that require high security and compliance standards can ensure secure data collection service through FormAssembly.
3.formstack
Image Credit:formstack
Best for:Creating beautifully branded forms
Cost:$59 - $249/mo | Custom Pricing for Enterprise
Formstack offers a user-friendly drag and drop form builder that meets industry standards including FDA and HIPAA compliance. With more than 100 integrations, formstack doesn’t require any coding to set up and you can get started with premade templates.
4.JotForm
Image Credit:JotForm
Best for:Centralizing health data, feedback, employee applications, and payments
Cost:$39 - $99/mo | Custom Pricing for Enterprise
JotForm offers HIPAA complaint forms and a BAA to enable your healthcare organization to securely collect healthcare information. With a single click, users can create forms to collect consent, schedule appointments, obtain patient signatures, and collect payments.
5.Typeform
Image Credit:Typeform
Best for:Adding custom designs and GIFs to making a visually appealing form
Cost:$29 - $99/mo | Custom Pricing for Enterprise
Typeform is a form builder tool that can be used to create polls, collect feedback, or design a quiz, making it easy to collect user feedback. It integrates with all major tools, making it easy to analyse results.
6.formsite
Image Credit:formsite
Best for:Creating mobile-friendly forms that can be embedded into your practice’s website
Cost:$24.95 - $249.95/mo
Formsite helps you create aesthetically pleasing and responsive forms to securely manage your healthcare information. You can choose from over 100 customizable templates and 40 question types to create forms for all situations.
7.Logiforms
Image Credit:Logiforms
Best for:Adding fields to sum up values in real-time on the form
Cost:$24.95 - $54.95/mo
Logiforms allows your organization to create feature-rich and intelligent forms that can be designed, hosted, and deployed within a few minutes. With the option to choose from 150+ templates and customize your form to fit your brand identity, you can even use your CSS to create a clean look that is user-friendly.
8.FormDr
Image Credit:FormDr
Best for:Combining multiple forms into a single patient intake form packet
Cost:Contact for quote
FormDr offers mobile-friendly forms that your patients can complete from any device. With the ability to convert paper, PDF, and Word documents into HIPAA compliant online forms you can streamline your workflow for maximum efficiency.
9.Cognito Forms
Image Credit:Cognito Forms
Best for:Creating responsive and conversational forms that increase the completion rate
Cost:$0 - $99/mo
Cognito Forms lets you create unlimited forms with their simple drag and drop form builder that is designed based on your need. You can also receive customized email notifications and create custom views to manage workflow.
10.doForms
Image Credit:doForms
Best for:Integrates with PowerBI to instantly analyze and build web dashboards
Cost:$9.95 - $19.95/license/mo
DoForms is a mobile-friendly solution made specifically for the healthcare industry that provides a secure method for collecting patient data and a powerful visualization board. Using Microsoft’s multi-factor authentication you can easily search for any data in the form and their intrusion detection technology protects the Azure cloud platform where patient data rests safely.
11.MedForward
Image Credit:MedForward
Best for:Streamlining patient intake processes
Cost:Contact for quote
MedForward forms comply with HIPAA regulations and make form submission digital, secure, and centralized, removing the need for a complicated paper-filing system. You can also add their forms very easily to your website without the need for any software installation.
12.123 Form Builder
Image Credit:123 Form Builder
Best for:Sending real-time alerts to different staff-specific devices
Cost:Contact for quote
Along with ensuring the privacy of your patients’ data, 123 Form Builder is designed to help you deliver a positive experience to your patients. 123 Form Builder not only helps you eliminate patient flow friction but reduces their wait time and seamless movement through the different stages of their care.
13.LuxSci
Image Credit:LuxSci
Best for:Users can write their name with a mouse, finger, or stylus
Cost:Contact for quote
LuxSci is a HIPAA compliant email and web services solution that is built for secure healthcare communication. Their Secure Form feature allows your organization to safely collect and store sensitive patient data in flexible file formats and storage locations to streamline your workflow.
14.PandaDoc
Image Credit:PandaDoc
Best for:Utilizing multiple workspaces to organize staff and patient data separately
Cost:$0 - $59/mo | Custom Pricing for Enterprise
PandaDoc works as an efficient means to create, store, and sign sensitive patient health information with the ultimate goal to improve the level of convenience for you and your patient. With all your patient data stored in a central location, your staff can focus on providing a great patient experience that doesn’t involve sitting crouched uncomfortably in the waiting room filling out confidential paperwork.
15.DocuSign
Image Credit:DocuSign
Best for:Reduce costs by gaining authorization with electronic signatures
Cost:Contact for quote
DocuSign offers a seamless experience that your patients deserve by enabling them to fill out paperwork and consent forms from their device, ahead of time. While this simplifies your patient experience, your staff is able to get organized with patient information much faster using a fully digital process.
Bonus: 2 patient intake forms services you’re familiar with
16.DocuSign
Image Credit:Microsoft Forms
Best for:Creating an easy-to-use form with clear design suggestions
Cost:Part of theMicrosoft Office 365 Suite
As a solution from the Office 365 suite, Microsoft Forms allows you to collect feedback with surveys, polls and quizzes that enable better decision making for your business. The built-in AI and smart recommendations that you get with Microsoft Forms allows you to get an online form ready in minutes.
17.Google Forms
Image Credit:Google Forms
Best for:Adding images or YouTube videos to your form
Cost:Free
Creating online forms with Google Form allows you to organize and analyze data neatly with real-time response info, charts and the option to export the data to Google sheets. You can choose from the multiple options in which you can design your questionnaire to create a comprehensive form that your users can access on the go.
Create patient intake forms online with NexHealth
Choosing a HIPAA complaint form builder software will not only ensure the security and integrity of your data but also its quality, enabling you to deliver exceptional diagnosis for your patients. With theability to clearly visualize insightsfrom the information you get from your patients, you can better optimize your practice’s performance.
Schedule a demo with NexHealthtoday to reduce the time spent in the waiting room with digital enablement!
