5 Reasons E-Signature Is Invaluable

By Ellen Sluder, VP, Marketing, Medforce Technologies Inc.

Electronic signature is a fast-growing technology in all industries. In the report Vendor Landscape: E-Signature, Q4 2016 research and advisory firm Forrester uncovers these e-signature statistics:

• 53 percent average annual growth of use of e-signature since 2011
• the number of transactions settled via e-signature likely to exceed 700 million in 2017
• 65 percent of Forrester inquiries on e-signature are from enterprises that have opted for SaaS or a cloud-based model

These statistics certainly show e-signature is a hot technology, but you have to keep in mind these numbers include all industries. We think healthcare is a truly unique market for e-signature.

In general, healthcare providers are late adopters to technology that will assist with business administration. Technology on the medical front is all about innovation and leading edge opportunities to provide better patient care. But when it comes to the care and compliance within the back office — the administrative side of things — healthcare businesses tend to be slow to implement and highly risk adverse.

With thin margins and increasing strain on operations, it can sometimes be hard to consider the transition process to a new technology, even when it delivers obvious ROI. Think about electronic faxing or using business intelligence data (aka Big Data): These are trends that hit other industries years and years ago, but many healthcare providers are just researching them now.

It’s similar for e-signature. It has long had traction in other industries but is just now breaking into healthcare. Healthcare administration is culturally different from other industries, and it affects the characteristics of an ideal e-signature tool.

While researching e-signature, you need to find one that is built from the start to handle the nuances and unique aspects of healthcare. A generic tool retroactively fitted to be HIPAA compliant will likely not be enough to meet your complex needs. As you investigate the right tool for your business, keep in mind these five ways e-signature is invaluable.

1. Compliance, Security, And Affordability Are Essential
Healthcare administrators are risk adverse. Margins are tight and regulatory compliance is critical. Paper-based methods of gathering signatures waste time and energy, are subject to human error, and lack the visibility and control that managers need. E-Signature built for HIPAA compliance can be an obvious answer to these concerns. Electronic signature completes the paperless office — no more printing and scanning authorizations back in — and it can greatly reduce work effort associated with managing signature capture.

However, healthcare administrators have to be careful they are not exposing themselves to compliance risks and that available use cases match the complex requirements of their operations. Most e-signature tools on the market were built for a generic audience, with financial industry and legal uses (e.g. contract negotiations) being the most common applications. Healthcare organizations have greater regulatory concerns and need a tool that is built specifically for their needs, at a price point that is manageable, with a clear return on investment.

2. Wide Variety Of Signers With Varying Levels Of Sophistication
Signature in healthcare is about as complex as it can be. You have a lot of individuals you need to capture signatures from. The most obvious are patients and clinicians, be they doctors, nurses, home health aides, ATPs or others who are providing care. Signatures are also required from administrators when answer ADRs, audits, and other inquiries or handling contract negotiations or managing shipping and receiving. Take that all in and you have a lot of different types of people with a lot of different skillsets who need to be engaged.

Electronic signature tools enable you to reach a broad audience with a standardized and user-friendly interface that will guide them, step by step. And you control it all from a centralized system.

3. Signature Occurs In A Lot Of Different Environments
In addition to a wide variety of signers, signature in healthcare is required in a lot of different environments. Signature might need to be captured from someone at a distance and currently you use email, fax or physical mail to obtain it. Sometimes signature is captured in person but that could be at the provider’s location, out in the field, or in the patient’s home.

Not everyone is near a fax machine. Not everyone is in front of a computer all day — in fact, many aren’t — and they all have varying amounts of time. This deepens the need for ease and flexibility of e-signature tools. As long as they have access to a web-enabled device, whether it is a computer, phone, or tablet, they can sign.

4. Need To Go Beyond Basic Signature
In healthcare, signature isn’t just the sealing of a deal. It is used in many different ways depending on the sector of healthcare, the user, and the signer. In some cases, it’s a physician authorizing a prescription. Sometimes it’s the patient acknowledging fiscal responsibility on an ABN. It can be a CFO attesting to the accuracy of the audit submission or a warehouse employee approving acceptance of a shipment. There are many more use cases as well.

Managing paper forms is messy and requires additional data entry. You need a single tool that will allow you to capture data in addition to approval, acknowledgement, and authorization.

5. Signature Is Rarely The Last Step In A Process
What is probably the most significant difference between healthcare and other industries when it comes to e-signature is that it’s rarely used at the end of a process. It often triggers a process to start or is needed right at the beginning, and then it’s needed in the middle, from someone else — and it’s on many different forms in many different places.

For something more transactional like contract negotiations or a sales effort, the signature is the final moment. Signature is what you’re working toward. In healthcare, signature is what you need to actually do the work.

These complex, layered workflows require a sophisticated tool. Plus, the urgency of deadlines drives the need for alerts and escalations with enough time to take action. In healthcare, missing information can cause delays that may put your earned revenue at stake.