Secure Email
Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), required by law, has provided AmeriHealth Administrators with the opportunity to take additional steps to increase the security of out-bound electronic communications.
To meet the requirements of HIPAA, AmeriHealth Administrators uses software that secures outbound email containing protected health information (PHI) and has procedures to be followed internally and by external members, group customers, and business partners when sending/receiving a secure email. A secure email is altered (or “encrypted”) so that it is unintelligible to unauthorized parties. PHI is individually identifiable health information held or transmitted by a covered entity such as AmeriHealth Administrators.
AmeriHealth Administrators secures all outbound email containing PHI. Instead of receiving email directly to your inbox, you will receive a notification message that AmeriHealth Administrators has an email waiting for you on a secure server. A link will take you, via a secure browser, to that server, where you will receive instructions for opening the email.
Process for Retrieving Secure Emails
- Member of the AmeriHealth Administrators workforce sends an email containing protected health information.
- The email is saved on a secure server.
- The addressee (member, broker, group administrator, or provider) receives the message saying the email is waiting for them. Then, the addressee retrieves the message from a secure server with instructions for opening the email.
While this process requires some extra steps, we are making every effort to ensure that there is no significant disruption to your communications with us. We appreciate your cooperation in helping us safeguard PHI.