Dental office IT support and security: Your 3 top questions answered

Are you prepared for the next industry-wide security breach? We are! We're HIPAA-compliant and take steps to protect your patient data. Here's how...

In our digital age, cybersecurity is of the utmost importance, especially when it comes to healthcare. You need to be especially vigilant by ensuring you are always compliant with the HIPAA laws that protect your patients and your practices. 

Your patient’s privacy is crucial, and so are your business records and payment processes. As you explore partnering with a revenue cycle management (RCM) provider like DCS, you might be wary that you’re endangering your patient’s privacy by letting a third-party service provider into your practice management software — and we understand. 

That’s why we spoke to DCS’ Director of Information Technology (IT), Tom Terronez, to answer 3 big questions you have about how DCS improves your security and protects you if a data breach occurs. 

Key takeaways about dental office IT:

• DCS takes a proactive approach to data security
• DCS Insurance Billing customers were safe from the recent clearinghouse data breach
• Our Account Specialists/ remote access is secured end to end, and will not put your patients’ data at risk

1. How does the DCS IT team support your dental team?

Securing data is like having locks on your home and car. While they will never be 100% secure against theft, there are barriers you will want to have in place for protection and prevention.

Our IT team at DCS is here to help make those locks more secure — not to weaken them. We asked our Director of IT, Tom Terronez, how he would describe the IT team’s role at a dental office, and he broke it down into 3 parts: 

“First is onboarding. Any new practice or group we work with is enrolled in the onboarding process that IT helps facilitate. We help explain how the process works, send necessary equipment, and make sure your dental team’s point of contact at DCS has everything needed to work with your team.

Second is supporting our internal team at DCS as they provide the services for dental businesses. In other words, we help them help you. 

Third, and probably most critical, is protecting all that information our team has access to. The fact that we are given the privilege to access their patient information… we respect that privilege. And so we provide tool sets and structure to ensure all 3 of these parts run smoothly and securely.”

Because DCS is an RCM provider, we access your practice management software to submit and follow-up on insurance claims, as well as post insurance claim payments. Our team will also analyze your financial reports to track progress, look for opportunities to improve, and keep an eye out for patterns that signal fraud and embezzlement. 

If you are using a cloud-based software, we’ll make sure your dedicated Account Specialist can access it. If you are using a server-based software, we will send you a laptop and scanner with instructions on how to securely onboard with our services.

DCS has spent over 10 years connecting remotely to dental teams’ practice management software — both cloud-based and server-based. Our goal is to make this process as seamless as possible, while also ensuring your business’ cybersecurity.

Read more: A digital dental practice: 3 reasons why you should embrace technology at the office

2. What does DCS do to protect dental offices from security breaches?

DCS takes several proactive steps to help secure your data and information:

• Educate each member of our IT team through continuous cybersecurity training 
• Stay abreast of current cybersecurity trends and news, learning where new vulnerabilities might arise, and taking steps to strengthen those areas. 
• Utilize multifactor authentication, which requires not just a password for access to your software, but also a second or even third authenticator. 
• Wield a full Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tool called Huntress that provides even deeper security for all of our equipment we use to access your software.

“The cool thing with Huntress is the viewpoint it gives us on the dental office’s security status. If we see something awry, we can make them aware. It gives us a view of everything that we wouldn't necessarily have without it — like a crew member in the crow’s nest of a ship, looking out for danger.” —Tom Terronez, DCS’ Director of IT

Alongside our main goal to improve your processes and increase your revenue, our IT team will set up your office to work with DCS, and they are trained and equipped to spot and resolve any issues that appear. Our digital interactions are secured from the start and throughout your partnership with us.

What will DCS do in the event of a security breach?

As you probably know, an industry-wide data breach happened recently with the clearinghouse, Change Healthcare. According to Health IT Security:

“UHG CEO Andrew Witty estimated that the data breach resulting from the Change Healthcare cyberattack will impact approximately one-third of Americans, though the investigation remains underway.”

Some of our customers who use Change Healthcare as their clearinghouse were among those affected. DCS was prepared to face that crisis when it occurred. If another industry-impact security breach happens, we’ll be prepared with the systems we already have in place to protect our customers. 

Our IT Director Tom explains,

“We've had a very proactive approach and a strong security structure prior to that security crisis, so we didn't have to scramble for a solution. We're ahead of our peers in a lot of ways —  specifically, a huge reason the Change Healthcare cybersecurity breach happened was because of their lack of multifactor authentication, allowing less secure remote access.

We’ve been using multifactor authentication for years, so that vulnerability point is secure for our customers. So, even if DCS had a security breach, the infiltrator won’t be able to access any dental businesses’ data. One, because we aren’t storing it, and two, because we use all of these tools to protect our access to customer PMSs.”

With the Change Healthcare incident, for our customers using Change Healthcare as a clearinghouse, we put a pause on sending their e-claims. This not only kept their patient and payment data safe, but their dental teams also avoided hours, or even days, of cleanup. Tom shares his insight:

“The offices who didn't stop submitting claims to Change Healthcare had a lot of cleanup work to do. Once Change Healthcare was operational again, it was a bit of a mess because their software didn't know what was submitted or submitted multiple times.

But by us pumping the brakes on claim submissions early on, we were able to pick up where we left off on claims work without trouble once Change Healthcare was operational again — or once the dental business switched vendors.”

It’s always been DCS’ goal to be proactive instead of reactive, and that includes how we protect your data as we help collect the money you’ve earned. Our current systems in place help protect you against security breaches, and also help prevent the messy aftermath that follows them.

Related: Dental office automation: What it will do for you and why your team is still crucial

Your dental office is protected when you work with DCS

To recap, we answered these questions about data security: 

1. How does the DCS IT team support your dental team?
2. What does DCS do to protect dental offices from security breaches?
3. What will DCS do in the event of a security breach?

Our priority at DCS is to use technology to your advantage as we optimize your workflows and increase your cashflow — this includes doing everything possible to secure your data. Our proactive approach includes: 

• HIPAA-compliance when accessing your practice management software
• Training and continuing education for our IT team and Account Specialists
• IT security support for our teams and yours, whether in a crisis or with everyday tasks

You can count on DCS to have a team of experts committed to the top-notch technology that sets our RCM services apart from other providers. Your team’s confidence in and reliance on DCS are pillars of the relationship we maintain with every dental team, like customer Melissa Parsons mentions in a recent review: 

“Terresa Urbanowski is my go-to person on a daily basis. She is always available when I have a question or guidance with insurance issues. Dental Claim Support has been providing quality services for our office, which has played a big role in improving patient care through attention to detail, great communication and providing excellent support for our other staff members here at the office. Thank you for all the continued care!” —Melissa Parsons

Protect your dental practice while collecting more money more often, with more ease: Book a free 30-minute consultation with DCS today.