WP146 | 5 Big HIPAA Mistakes That Put Your Practice at Risk with Dr. Tiana Kelly
If you think HIPAA compliance is boring… think again.
Hey friends, Whitney here! 🙋♀️ I know, I know—just hearing the word HIPAA might make your eyes glaze over. But trust me, this is the episode you didn’t know you desperately needed.
Whether you're running a solo practice or leading a growing group, staying compliant isn’t optional—and the risks of getting it wrong are bigger than you might think.
That’s why I brought in Dr. Tiana Kelly, a rockstar compliance consultant and practicing therapist, to break down the five most common HIPAA mistakes she sees in private practices (yes, even the well-meaning ones). We’re talking accidental breaches, boundary blunders, billing issues, and those little things you “didn’t know you didn’t know”—all the stuff that could put your practice at risk.
The best part? Tiana shares super practical, doable steps you can take today to clean up your systems, tighten your documentation, and train your team without the overwhelm.
So pour a cup of coffee, grab your notebook, and let’s make sure your practice is protected and thriving. 🎧
1. Accidental Breaches
What happens: You meant to send Client A’s records, but accidentally attached Client B’s notes.
Why it matters: Even an honest mistake is still a breach—and you’re required to report it.
What to do: Create workflows to prevent PHI (protected health information) from lingering on your desktop or in your email. Dr. Kelly recommends a daily “PHI purge”—clearing your downloads and trash at the end of the day—to avoid mishaps and signal to your brain that your workday is done.
2. Boundary Violations (Especially via Texting)
What happens: Therapists (especially younger ones) may casually text with clients, crossing clinical boundaries without realizing it.
Why it matters: Texting can blur lines and expose PHI, especially if not done through an encrypted platform.
What to do: Establish clear policies about texting—what’s okay, what’s not—and use encrypted systems like Spruce. And if you catch something concerning (like a client texting their dinner plate to their therapist), use it as a teachable moment, not a disciplinary one.
3. Untimely Documentation
What happens: Notes pile up, get delayed, or are submitted outside of the 24–48 hour window.
Why it matters: Late notes can lead to billing issues, poor clinical care, and compliance risk.
What to do: Encourage your team to set a personal note-taking time limit (e.g., 5–7 minutes per note), and offer support when delays are due to skill gaps or life circumstances. Whitney even shared a story about discovering a therapist’s note delays were due to slow typing—not laziness!
4. Billing Before the Note Is Done
What happens: A session gets billed to insurance before the therapist completes their documentation.
Why it matters: Technically, the service isn't complete until the note is done—and billing early is a compliance violation.
What to do: Build billing workflows that require documentation before claims are submitted. It’s not just about getting paid—it's about doing things ethically and legally.
5. You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
What happens: You’re unintentionally out of compliance because…well, no one ever taught you.
Why it matters: Ignorance won’t protect you if a breach happens or if the state board comes calling.
What to do: Invest in education and stay up-to-date on both federal HIPAA guidelines and your state-specific regulations. And don’t rely solely on your EHR to do the work for you—it's still your job to make sure your systems are set up properly.
Want Help Getting Compliant?
Dr. Kelly and the team at Move Forward Counseling now offer compliance consulting services for private practices. Whether you’re just starting or need an outside audit, they offer chart reviews, policy development, training, and CEU-eligible compliance workshops.
➡️ Learn more at www.moveforwardpa.com under the Business Consulting tab.
Final Thoughts
Running a faith-based private practice means doing the right thing—even when it’s complicated. This episode is packed with practical, non-judgmental advice for strengthening your systems, training your team, and protecting your clients.
Show Sponsor My Best Practice
Looking for an EHR that saves you time and supports real therapy? Try My Best Practice.
Created by therapists for therapists, MBP gives you:
- AI SOAP & Progress Notes
- One-click documentation
- 2-Way Google Sync
- A mobile app
- Group Appointments and Notes
- Customizable Forms, Notes, and Treatment Plans
- Payroll reporting
Therapists love how it makes routine outcome measures seamless—with auto-scheduling, autoscoring, and automatic charting.
With all that, it’s no surprise MBP was named Best Overall EHR in Mental Health for 2025 for the second year in a row and the first EHR ever awarded 5/5 stars by Choosing Therapy.
Get 3 months free by going to:
https://referral.mbpractice.com/ref/wisepractice
Dr. Tiana Kelly’s Resources
Move Forward Counseling on LinkedIn
Links and Resources
Looking for support and connection: Join the Wise Practice Community
Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
Connect with Wise Practice on Instagram
-
[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Looking for an EHR that saves you time and supports real therapy? Try out my best practice created by therapists. For therapists. My best practice gives you ai, soap, and progress notes. One click documentation. Two way. Google sync a mobile app group appointments and notes, customizable forms, notes, and treatment plans and payroll reporting.
Therapists love how it makes routine outcome measures seamless with auto scheduling, auto scoring, and. Automatic charting with all that, it's no surprise my best practice was named Best Overall, EHR and Mental Health for 2025 for the second year in a row. And the first EHR ever awarded five out of five stars by choosing therapy.
Get three months free by heading to my best practice.com. Slash ref slash wise practice. We'll have that link in the notes that you can grab it for three months free. Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all.
Wanna grow your practice, wanna grow your faith? Wanna enjoy your life outside of work, you've come to the right place. Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time. Now, let's get started
[00:01:25] Jingle: with Rozi. She don't play.
She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and the Wise Practice Podcast. Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:01:44] Whitney Owens: Hey friends, and welcome back to The Wise Practice Podcast. I am so glad you're here. There are so many shows you could listen to, things that you could be doing with your time and you choose to spend it here.
Thank you and I'm gonna provide you some great value. Today we're gonna be jumping into the five biggest HIPAA mistakes that put your practice at risk. These are ones you wanna hear. Before we jump into the episode though, I wanna take a few minutes to talk about something that I believe is game changer for you personally and for your practice, and that is the Wise Practice Summit.
If you can't already tell by how hyped I'm talking, it does express the energy and excitement that I do have for this event. Every single year, we get together as faith-based practice owners at the Wise Practice Summit. We grow our businesses together, we build meaningful connections. We leave inspired and equipped to take our practice to the next level.
And this year we're heading to beautiful Greenville, South Carolina, a charming city. That's the perfect drop backdrop for an intimate relational conference experience. Alright, don't just take my word for it. I wanna share with you some testimonials from last year's attendees so that you can hear more about the experience at the Wise Practice Summit.
Solo practice owner in Florida said I thoroughly enjoyed the sense of community and support that it fostered. The sessions provided practical faith-based tools to help us grow our practices, while challenging us to lead with integrity and purpose. Connecting with like-minded practitioners from around the country was invaluable.
A group practice owner said, my favorite part of the summit every year is the people. This year I was extremely impressed by the high quality and diversity of speakers and their clear communication of the content. This conference moves my practice forward exponentially every year that I attend, and the friendships I've built will last a lifetime.
Another group practice owner said. From last year that the Wise Practice Summit was much more intimate and relational than other conferences that he had attended. The speakers were nuts and bolts compared to the inspirational speeches that you get at larger conferences. Very impressive. That's exactly what makes The Wise Practice Summit so unique.
Practical, faith-driven, intentionally designed to foster community. And at this year in Greenville, you will get the same intimate experience where you can actually connect with speakers and peers, ask questions, connect with sponsors that'll help your practice grow and leave with actionable tools. You can implement when you get home.
Tickets are on sale now, wise practice consulting.com. I would love to see you there. Don't wait. Come join an incredible community of faith-based practice owners and invest in yourself and the future of your practice. Alright, now we will jump into this episode. I interviewed Dr. Tina Kelly, who does consulting surrounding.
Group practices, solo practices, understanding confidentiality, hipaa, and all the things we need to know. So make sure that you stay tuned. Make it to the end so you can hear more about the services that she offers. And we're gonna jump into this episode on five big HIPAA mistakes that put your practice at risk.
Welcome to the Wise Practice Podcast, and today I have Dr. Tiana Kelly, who's been working in a clinical capacity and counseling since 2017, and has dedicated several years to developing and strengthening move forward counseling compliance program. Tiana brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in her consulting role related to compliant documentation practices and policy development.
HIPAA standards and chart auditing. In addition, she has a doctorate degree in prevention science, which has equipped her with the skillset necessary to identify and promote protection against compliance risks. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
[00:05:50] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Thank you. Thank you, Whitney, for having me. I'm excited to be here and to talk a little bit about the compliance.
[00:05:57] Whitney Owens: Yeah, definitely. Well, I just have to make sure everyone knows that you and Allison Pigeon work together, and if you've been listening to the show, you've probably heard Allison at least once, if not more on the podcast. Allison and I have been friends for a very long time, and move forward is a group practice with how many locations now in Pennsylvania.
[00:06:16] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Oh, that's a great question. I think we're up to eight, um, with two offices in Lancaster, so it depends how you count those. Um, but with over 65 therapists, I believe we're up to at this point. Wow. And and so you
[00:06:30] Whitney Owens: do the compliance for all that, huh?
[00:06:33] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Yes, yes. I've been doing compliance with Move forward since 2023, just working basically to develop the program from the ground up, helping to kind of coach and guide therapists at our practice on best practices for documentation.
And then also trying to, you know, strengthen our practices and our policies and procedures for all things compliance, uh, and hipaa. Oh,
[00:06:59] Whitney Owens: I love it because that's. That's a lot. I mean, you gotta get in a well old machine and so many policies, procedures in place. So I'm so glad to have you on the show because this is a topic that so many therapists ask about is compliance, hipaa, all this kind of stuff.
So today we're gonna jump into these five areas where we see the most common issues with, with hipaa. But real quick, did you say that in your body you're a, you're a therapist as well? Is that right?
[00:07:27] Dr. Tiana Kelly: That's correct. Yes. So I juggle multiple hats. I work as a therapist, uh, work in compliance, and then also work as a compliance consultant.
So I, I, I'm very appreciative of the role that I maintain, um, with. That therapist hat on, just because it, I think it gives me a little bit of an advantage in doing some of this compliance work because I can see it from the therapist perspective, right? So I can understand, for instance, maybe why documentation looks the way it does, or maybe why documentation might have submitted, might have been submitted a little bit outside of, you know, the 24 48 hour window.
And I am also wearing that compliance hat and I'm there to try to, you know, help. Help us up uphold and adhere to the standards that our ethics codes require of us. And so, yeah, it's a, it's a unique role to kind of wear both hats, but I think it gives an advantage, um, to be in each role.
[00:08:25] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And, and I know with my work with therapists as a business consultant, they want to know that I've done clinical work and that I've built the business and that I know what I'm doing.
And I would think the same when you're consulting. You're not only the compliance officer, HIPAA health, you know, you're also a therapist that gets it. So I think that brings you a lot of power to the conversation. De um, so let's jump in. We've got five different ways that we're gonna talk about kind of hipaa, non-compliance, or the most common ways people are making mistakes, which usually they're don't even realize.
So what is the first one that you have there?
[00:09:00] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Yeah, I would say the first one is purely just accidental breaches. So you know, this can look like you might have a therapist or an admin staff, or maybe you as the practice owner, you're trying to send information to one client. They've requested their records, they want access to them.
Fantastic. They are entitled to that. And you maybe just from poor work. Flow, you just accidentally forgot you had another client's information already downloaded to your desktop and you accidentally send the wrong information to the wrong client. I think this is something that we all sort of fall victim to and it happens at some point in time and usually, you know, clients are, are.
Forgiving when we make that error and we notify them of that breach. However, it's one of those things that we, we need to make sure we have adequate and efficient workflows in process to make sure that we're not subjecting ourselves to those accidental reaches. You know, just kind of, I, I didn't intend to do it, it just happened.
Um, maybe I was moving too, too quickly. Um, I was. Distracted. I was answering the phone and also trying to tackle this task for this client, and I accidentally had a breach. Mm-hmm.
[00:10:16] Whitney Owens: Well, I appreciate you just commenting that it does happen accidentally and like it's common for all of us, you know? Um, and it's a matter of going to the client, letting them know, fixing the problem.
But I like what you just said, it's, um, a workflow. Like, um, what, what would be a suggestion of something that you could do in your workflow to prevent that?
[00:10:37] Dr. Tiana Kelly: One of the biggest things is making sure that you're not. There's gonna be some instances where you have to download client information just in order to send it to them.
However, it's very important to make sure that we're not keeping that PHI on our computers, even if it is a work sponsored computer. Uh, we wanna try to mitigate the risk of breach anywhere possible. And so making sure that you're. Constantly doing, um, what I like to call is like a PHI purge on your computer.
And also this could be in your email box as well. You know, just making sure that you're doing regular purges of client information that you no longer really need to have on the desktop in your email box. Um. I think that that's a key way. Just making sure each and every day, honestly, that that's the close of your workday.
It's also a good little way to send the message to your brain that says, Hey, I'm done with work for the day. I'm kind of clearing everything out. Uh, that way you don't, you know, start the next day with that risk of more client information being on your computer than is really necessary.
[00:11:39] Whitney Owens: Definitely. Even as I'm sitting here thinking about things I've had to do that for, I always have to like remember to go back and delete it and then to empty my trash too at the end so that you know, on my computer to make sure.
And to me that's just normal. But now I'm realizing, okay, well the group practice, you've really gotta write this stuff out. You really gotta help make sure people know, hey, this is the pause. This is what you do. And I think that's so great about the work you're doing is that you help. Those policies get put into place like that.
[00:12:09] Dr. Tiana Kelly: A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like, you know, individually we might have different therapists that we're working with that are really good about doing those purges. Right. They just, they like that mental process of clearing everything out. But also, you know, putting the therapist hat on, it's very relatable to, at the end of the day, you're just exhausted, you know?
You don't have any more capacity to do some of those little, uh, administrative tasks. And so then, then it piles up and then it piles up tomorrow and the next day and the next day. And so just making sure that you make that a practice for yourself. Um, and then, you know, for practice owners, I think you're absolutely right.
Making sure that you incorporate that into your policies and procedures. That way at the end of it all, you can say, you know, here, here it is. Here's the, the policy that we are supposed to be doing, these PHI purges regularly, and you agreed to doing that. So it helps strengthen, you know, hopefully the therapist practices overall, but also your practice in its entirety.
[00:13:09] Whitney Owens: Hmm, I love that. Yeah. Okay. What's the second one that you have there?
[00:13:13] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Some one would be boundary violations. So we hear instances like this, um, probably more often than we'd like to, you know, we hear about like dual relationships that clients or therapists are having with clients, but also, you know, with the advancements and the continued advancements of technology, we might see boundary crossings or boundary violations in like text communication, for instance.
So this is another good area where I think it's important to have policies and procedures in place at the, at the practice level to make sure that there are is some guidelines in terms of what are we texting clients, you know, are we keeping that limited to scheduling or rescheduling or are you a practice owner who says like, actually let's just steer clear of texting so we don't even open up that risk of.
Communicating maybe too much or, uh, inappropriately with a client. Another thing to really keep in mind as far as uh, texting would be making sure that you're using like an encrypted forum for doing so. Mm-hmm.
[00:14:20] Whitney Owens: This one is so big, and it goes back to sometimes we don't realize a problem until it happens and we have to make a policy about it.
And even as I've been hiring younger therapists, texting is just so much more part of the DNA and young clients coming in our culture. It's like that's all people do now. So we've really had to watch that. The great thing is with our phone system, we use Spruce and you can go in and see what everyone is communicating with their clients, at least from the administrative side.
That way we can monitor, especially therapists that are new to private practice or they're in their supervision, we can use those to train therapists. Hey, this really isn't appropriate. You know, this all happened when a client was texting food with. Food with the therapist. They were taking pictures of their food and talking about it.
We were like, that's not really, like, that needs to be talked about in session if that's part of your clinical work. But other than that, you don't need to be taking pictures of the hamburger you had down the street. You know? And therapist was like, oh, I didn't realize, you know, and so, so then we had to make policy surrounding that.
So I'm glad that you brought up that point. It is so important.
[00:15:29] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Yeah. Well, and I appreciate that story because it. Really highlights how a lot of these things can just be teaching opportunities. You know, I think a lot of times when we hear the word compliance, the, the biggest piece of feedback I get when I'm working with therapists is like, I thought I was in trouble.
Like I was scared to have this meeting. I never want people to feel like that, because more often than not, we're just talking about ways to. Be better. Which is, I mean, that's our mission as humans in general, right? Is to just be better and to do better. And so using that kind of as that like training opportunity, like, hey, you know, here we can see this is going on.
Let's, let's try to do this instead. Let's do something other than that. Let's save that for, you know, the clinical work, the clinical documentation, if that is related to something clinical. Um, but I, I also appreciate too when you, when your practice has that capacity to be able to see those different text logs, not.
Not in a way that, you know, we're micromanaging and we're reading everything, but to just catch those things that otherwise we wouldn't know is happening. You know, I, I've seen instances where like, clients are sending credit card information, for instance, just because they don't, they don't know or realize, right?
And so that's an opportunity for us as therapists to also educate them like, Hey, I, I actually wouldn't send your credit card information like ever in a text message. Uh, so you know, it's teaching opportunities for not only. Therapist, but also for, for us to help our clients with some of these things too.
[00:16:59] Whitney Owens: Yeah, that's such a good point. I'm always amazed how many people send their credit card in the text or voicemail, and I'm like, yes. All right, so what's the third one there?
[00:17:09] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Third one I would say is untimely documentation. I think this is the big sticking point in the therapy world. In healthcare in general, just because it's, it, it can be challenging, right?
We've had a really long day, um, like I was just saying, you know, long day you're tired, you just wanna call it quits. And so you do. Um, and what happens when you know those six notes that you didn't do for the day and you start your day off tomorrow with four or 5, 6, 7 clients and now you have multiple, multiple notes that you need to get done within, you know, most.
Most practices are like a 24, 48 hour window. Kind of depends on if you're self pay, if you are paid by insurance, you know, all of those nuances. But that, I would say is a, a huge issue just across the board. Um, making sure that therapists are staying on top of their documentation, um, and when they're not making sure that they're including, like notations in, in their notes themselves to just explain like.
Hey, I acknowledge this is outside of that 24 48 hour window, whatever's required by your payer, and you know, here's why. Right? Just due to poor time management, or I was sick, or whatever. Just to explain and acknowledge like, yep, I, I get it. I understand that this was outside of their requirement, and here's the explanation as to why.
And, and typically, you know, insurance companies in particular, obviously if that was a chronic issue, they're not gonna be too pleased with that, but. They're more understanding and responsive to when you just explain and acknowledge what's happened than if you just try to make it look like, you know, no one will notice.
No one will notice that it's outside of that required time period.
[00:18:53] Whitney Owens: Yes. Um, so how do you get therapists to do timely documentation? What's the secret? What's the secret?
[00:19:03] Dr. Tiana Kelly: I, I think that's gonna be, um, a a million dollar question for. All of time. Um, you know, I think it's really though a tailored approach, like talking with each therapist who's maybe struggling this in this area and, and finding out like why are they struggling, right?
Is it, is it purely a time management thing that we can sort of teach some time management strategies and skills to them? Is it. Like just not really having confidence, documenting, not knowing what to document. So you spend way too much time thinking about what should go into the note as opposed to actually just producing it.
And then that, you know, can be a really clinical conversation to sit down and weed out, you know? Yeah. Okay. Here, here's a really lengthy note that you produced and let's. Let's dig through some of this and teach you how to cut down on this, right so that the note, you know, only takes you 3, 5, 7 minutes maximum.
And I think that that's often one thing that I will help train other therapists with is to like find, find your maximum amount of time that you wanna spend on a note, and then train yourself to do that with exceptions obviously. Right. You have your, your crisis situations where those notes are just gonna take you more time.
You, you wanna dedicate a lot more time to those intense situations.
[00:20:20] Whitney Owens: Definitely. This reminds me of the therapist that I had. She was so behind on her notes consistently, and, um, we talked to her about it. All the things you just said, we just couldn't figure it out. So finally I was like, okay, I'm literally gonna sit here with you while you do your note on the client you just saw.
She didn't know how to type. She was using her, you know, finger instead of like home keys and stuff, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is just a typing issue. Like you could take a course for that. You know, so poor thing. Um, but I would've never known if I hadn't just sat down and gone through it with her.
[00:20:55] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Yeah. That, I mean, that's such a good point though, because we do, you know, I was just speaking to, to the tech advancements in our world and we do, I think, rely on this notion that everybody is skilled in that and. Sometimes not right, or sometimes it can be an actual impairment, right? If you have carpal tunnel, for instance, typing would present a little bit of a challenge.
So I, I, I like that approach that you took to just sit down beside them and like, let's, let's see, in real time, what are some of the issues? Because a lot of times you, it's something that can, you know, you can work, either work around it or help them, work through it. Help them gain the skills to make it happen and make, make that documentation be submitted on time.
[00:21:38] Whitney Owens: Yeah, definitely. All right. What's the fourth one?
[00:21:43] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Could be billing errors, um, or just billing practices, I guess I should say. So for instance, you know, there I, I have worked alongside some practices where they will, if you're in, if you accept insurance, they will bill for the session before the note is completed.
And you know, technically that's not allowed. We should be. Billing once that note is completed because that the note completion says the service has been completed. And hence why we often have that 24 to 48 hour window to kind of keep things moving. And so that is something that I see often where, you know, people are just, they're eager to get paid, obviously, because the, the.
Front end of the service has been completed in terms of that therapy session. And so they submit that claim and then the note, you know, is hanging out because as we just talked about some of that untimely documentation, uh, and that also, you know, poses a big or issue in terms of the practice if you, you know, aren't in just solo private practice because now you've billed for insurance, but the therapist hasn't finished their note and so.
What do you do? Do you pay the therapist because they haven't technically finished the job, or do you wait until they finish the job? So it just gets really, really hairy. So if you're able to kind of develop a nice workflow around, particularly like. Getting the note finished in that 24 to 48 hours, working with the therapist on being able to do that in a timely way.
And then, you know, very quickly after that session, being able to bill insurance, it, you know, keeps you away from some really sticky, sort of gray areas when it comes to billing practices and maintaining compliance.
[00:23:29] Whitney Owens: Yeah. In fact, I didn't really know that part. Like I, I knew that you needed to write your note of course, but like the whole idea that you really shouldn't bill without it.
Like I didn't realize that was a compliance issue. So you just kind of educated me today on that. Um, and I guess 'cause I'm a private pay practice, I don't notice it quite so much, but at the same time, yeah, that's part of caring for the client. I see that part.
[00:23:54] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Exactly. Yeah. If you think about like our job as a whole, there's a reason why we need to document and so.
Making sure that we are, we see the client, we have our, you know, 50 to 60 minute session with them. And then the, the follow up to that is the note that, that has been industry standard for as long as time. Right. And if we don't finish that note, the service isn't finished. So why would insurance wanna go back and, and pay us for that if technically we have not finished the service?
It, it does make sense. But is one of those things, I think that often does get overlooked just because it's like in our minds, the, the, the tough part of our work is finished. We have sat with the client, we have gone through that session, so we're finished, we're finished with the session for the day.
[00:24:43] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. Good point. Yeah. Well, I think this might lead us into the last one there.
[00:24:48] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Yeah, so last piece is really all about like you just don't know what you don't know. So lack of knowledge, and this could be about anything pertaining to compliance, could be pertaining to hipaa, could be pertaining to those documentation standards, to the billing standards, and sometimes we just.
You know, engage in different practices, not knowing, for instance, taking us back to the first example about accidental breaches. Like if you just don't realize that, hey, if I keep all of this client information on my computer, it, it could lead to a breach. Or we don't even realize like. Sending that information to a different client technically is a breach.
Then, you know, we're subjecting ourselves to a lot of risk there, just from lack of knowledge around like, what is PHI and what are our HIPAA standards, and what are our insurance payers require in terms of our practices? So I would say, yeah, just not knowing what you don't know. Not that that is an excuse.
Definitely helps to inform us where our risks lie and helps us to kind of strengthen our protections against, you know, all these different things that we talked about, boundary violations, accidental breaches, but it, it's a real thing and we often in many subject areas, like just don't know what we don't know until we sometimes make that mistake and can be a small mistake, but it can also be a really costly mistake too.
Mm-hmm.
[00:26:14] Whitney Owens: Yeah. It's not like you're gonna go to court and you can just say, I don't know. And it's okay.
[00:26:18] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Exactly. Yeah. Yes. 'cause they're gonna look at you and say, you know, you, you have these codes, you have these standards, you have access to the information to read about these different codes and standards.
So you don't get to just use that as an excuse.
[00:26:32] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Another thing I've actually been thinking about and kind of emailing with different people about, with softwares, it's like. The software company that works with the therapist. Yeah. It's best if they have the HIPAA best standards, you know, and, and they look and they work towards those.
But at the same time, it's our responsibility to know what they are and that we go in the software and we make it compliant. So it's like if you get a G Suite account, there are some things to go in on the back end to make it more compliant. And that could be maybe the EHR, like I was talking to somebody about multi-factor authentication, right?
It's like, well. I use therapy notes. It's not a requirement by Therapy Notes. When I started using it, it wasn't something that they made me do. And so, yeah, that's a compliance issue you have, you know? But then I was like, oh, well I have the lock on my computer. And the password. So I have the two lock, which hopefully I got that rule right?
And so I was like, well, I don't need the multifactor authentication necessarily 'cause I feel like I've got that in place. But that's a matter of like, you've gotta know what the law is and use the software as appropriately, you know, and not depend on someone else to do it or know it for you.
[00:27:48] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Absolutely.
Absolutely. And another big piece of importance is, you know, we have, we have HIPAA as sort of like our federal regulations, but also some of our state regulations are different as well. So you, you do bear that burden of being aware of like federally, what does it say? But then also what are, what are our state.
Codes say, what do our state laws say? Sometimes they differ and we have to go by which one is the most strict. So it certainly is a lot of information to know and be aware of, but it's, it's crucial, right? It's crucial. As, as therapists, it's crucial as practice owners to at least be trying, right, to be trying to gain this knowledge and, and making those decisions for ourselves to strengthen our practices in the best way possible.
[00:28:37] Whitney Owens: Yeah, definitely. Well, tell me more. It sounds like at Move Forward they offer some consulting services for practices. Can you tell me about that?
[00:28:46] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Absolutely, yes. So we have launched some compliance consulting services under Move Forward counseling and. Basically this, this is kind of a glimpse into what some of those services entail.
So we kind of take a little dive into what are some of the areas of risk at your practice. Maybe in terms of policies, maybe it's charts and documentation that you're really needing help with. Maybe it is just sitting down and like talking a little bit about compliance, gaining some of that knowledge.
We were kind of starting. From the ground up in developing your compliance program. So we have three tiers of services meant to kind of address the needs of different practice sizes, uh, and also different practice needs. So if you are someone who has only recently started to develop. Any sort of compliance program, we have more intensive, you know, like consultation calls and chart audits that we offer to really just help you in developing that program.
Or if you're a practice that you have a pretty decent compliance program, but you just want some external consultation and external look at, you know, hey, does it seem like we're doing everything okay? Or are there areas that we could strengthen? What are some of the maybe red flags that you see? We have some services geared.
Toward that, really trying to take, uh, just like a, an individualized approach, you know, because every practice is going to be a little bit different. Every practice's needs are going to be a little bit different. Um, and within each of our service tiers, um, offer the opportunity for some of that, you know, collaborative work, doing consultations, consultations with practice owners, consultations.
Therapists if they might need some one-on-one help with their documentation. Um, we also have the, the capabilities to go in and do chart audits. Sometimes that's all practice owners want and need, right? It's like, please just take care of this for me because, you know, we all should be doing it. And yet the, it just added to the to-do list.
Um, another thing that we are offering within our. Compliance consulting packages is a two hour CEU eligible compliance training. So you know, to train therapists at your practice on just some of these things that we've talked about today. So yeah, we're super excited to be launching this and eager to be spreading the word.
[00:31:04] Whitney Owens: So important. Yeah, there's definitely meaning more services like this out there for therapists. Um, and so if somebody is interested in some of the courses or getting in touch with you for some consulting, how would they do that?
[00:31:17] Dr. Tiana Kelly: So the best step at this point would be to go to www.moveforwardpa.com and um, under our business landing page, there is a business consulting tab.
And on there is the, the instructions for how to contact our executive administrator.
[00:31:40] Whitney Owens: Wonderful. Well, this has been very knowledgeable and helpful and I think that effective treatment, you know, for practices, you know, to be able to put into place to help get them in a better place. And I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the show.
[00:31:54] Dr. Tiana Kelly: Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
[00:32:00] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owen and Wise Practice
[00:32:14] Whitney Owens: Podcast. Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network. A collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to site craft network.com. The Wise Practice podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
