Podcasts about person centered tech

In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, Kym interviews Ally Rosenberg, a therapist specializing in women's mental health, who is exploring the possibility of living a traveling therapist lifestyle in Quebec. Ally's interest in this lifestyle stems from her partner's career flexibility and citizenship in Canada. Which allows them to consider living in different locations. She discusses her efforts to navigate the complexities of virtual therapy practice across borders, including understanding the specific licensure requirements in different regions.   Ally has been researching the legalities of cross-border virtual practice and has utilized resources like Person-Centered Tech trainings on this topic. She explains that state licensing boards regulate where the therapist can practice, usually requiring the therapist to be licensed in the state where the client is located. In Quebec, where Ally is considering practicing, the psychological order mandates licensure for outpatient work. She talks about the challenges she faces as she explores the possibility of working with a master's degree in Quebec.   One of the critical considerations for traveling therapists, as Ally notes, is managing high-acuity clients while abroad. She balances her work between community services and private clients to mitigate risks and gain experience. Ally also emphasizes the importance of having liability insurance coverage for cross-border practice, advising direct contact with insurers to understand international coverage specifics.   As for her future plans, Ally remains open to new connections and sharing insights about the process of practicing in Quebec. Her decision between France and Quebec will depend on her partner's job situation, which is expected to be finalized in June. She encourages listeners to reach out to her to discuss these topics further.   Key Points: Navigating Virtual Practice Across Borders: Ally is researching the legal requirements for virtual therapy practice in different states and countries, focusing on understanding the regulations for therapists practicing outside their licensed state. Quebec Licensure and Challenges: In Quebec, licensure is required for outpatient work. Ally is exploring options for equivalency applications and considering the French language requirements, which pose a challenge for her due to ADHD. Managing Risks and Gaining Experience: Ally balances her work between community services and private clients to mitigate risks while practicing abroad. She also discusses the importance of liability insurance for cross-border practice and the need for thorough research.   About Ally Rosenberg Ally is a therapist new to private practice and interested in experiencing an amazing career as a therapist while needing to move around for my partner's academic/research career. In her practice, she enjoy empowering women through life's challenges and finding a sense of liberation in their every day life. Ally use an integrative approach to treat ADHD, anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges. And she is trained in DBT, CBT, MI, and ACT.   She is someone who really enjoys a wide array of skill sets throughout her week. So wherever she end up, she like to take on per diem work in emergency rooms, and run DBT skills groups at higher levels of care. Connect with Ally: Email address:  allyrosenberg@risewithrose.org Links discussed in the episode:   https://www.ebglaw.com/telemental-health-laws-app   https://www.mass.gov/policy-advisory/board-policies-and-guidelines-allied-mental-health?_gl=1*1m2v4s9*_ga*MjAwOTg4NTI4OC4xNjQ0MzY5OTYx*_ga_MCLPEGW7WM*MTcwMzE5MzU5My4xLjAuMTcwMzE5MzU5My4wLjAuMA..#policy-on-distance-online-and-other-electronic-assisted-counseling-policy-no-07-03   Alma is on a mission to simplify access to high-quality, affordable mental health care by giving providers the tools they need to build thriving in-network private parties. Learn more about Alma.   Connect with me: Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym   The Traveling Therapist Membership: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/travelingtherapistmembership   Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai   Signup to learn more about life as Traveling Therapist: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/l2v7c3   The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/   Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab   Subscribe to the Podcast: Apple iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcast | Stitcher | Amazon |  Castbox

With terms and conditions changing for Zoom and SimplePractice, most therapists are scrambling to understand what these changes mean.But these aren't the first and aren't likely the last companies to make changes. Let's join together to understand the legal and ethical ramifications and talk about how to determine what software meets the legal and ethical needs for your practice.Check out this free replay of a recent panel discussion with Eric (therapist attorney), Liath (from Person Centered Tech), and Miranda (your private practice coach) to unpack the impact of terms on you, your clients, and your business.Access the video version here: https://www.zynnyme.com/terms---Learn more about Business School for Therapists: news.zynnyme.com/business-school/Check out the Therapist Burnout book: amazon.com/gp/product/B0BP45V4WG/Website: zynnyme.comBlog: zynnyme.com/blogFacebook: facebook.com/kellyandmirandaInstagram: instagram.com/zynnyme/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/zynnyme/Pinterest: pinterest.com/zynnyme/Check out more episodes of the Starting a Counseling Practice Success Stories podcast on these platforms + leave a review letting us know what you think:Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotify

Many mental health practitioners struggle to fully grasp the ins and outs of HIPAA requirements, so they just copy and paste forms from other clinicians, use software that can be easily breached, and think that "as long as the client doesn't mind using Venmo, Gmail, etc., it's fine, right?"But that's not how HIPAA works or why it exists. And though many therapists find it to be annoying, when implemented properly, it can be a tool to build trust with clients, as well as optimize and fortify your business and systems.If you are not already running a HIPAA-compliant private practice or maybe just want to know more about how to seamlessly and painlessly implement it into your business, this episode is for you.In this episode, I talk with Liath Dalton, director of Person Centered Tech, about how to "do HIPAA" the right way.Top 3 reasons to listen to the entire episode:Understanding the nuances of HIPAA compliance and how to make sure that you are following it correctly.See how HIPAA compliance doesn't have to be a headache or complicated and how you can embrace it with ease.Learn which tools for private practice are reliable and HIPAA-compliant so that you can choose the right ones for your business that are budget-friendly and secure.It's important to make your private practice HIPAA compliant to protect yourself and your clients, as well as ensure that you have a business that operates smoothly and is trustworthy.More about Liath:Liath is the director of Person Centered Tech, home of the PCT Way — a system for optimizing your practice and covering your HIPAA bases in just 5 steps. Liath cares deeply about PCT's purpose of "helping the helpers" through providing direct support, CE training, and resources to mental health practitioners in service of establishing robust and effective practices that meet the needs of your clients and you. Liath is especially passionate about supporting and equipping practice owners in navigating the security compliance process and identifying the specific solutions and processes that meet the particular needs of their practices.Check out this special offer from Liath: Discount on the PCT Way system packages (HIPAA Security Risk Analysis & Risk Mitigation Planning, HIPAA Manual, Device Security, Training, Service Selection, and direct support & consultation) for solo practitioners and group practices: Solo Practitioner PCT Way HIPAA Compliance Bundle and Group Practice PCT Way HIPAA Compliance BundleSave $100 off a HIPAA risk analysis, exclusive for ATPP listeners at https://personcenteredtech.com/atppp-x-pct.-------------------------------------------------------

Navigating Cross-Jurisdictional Practice Permissibility: Insights and Considerations for Therapists  Expert Tips from Person-Centered Tech In this episode, I welcome Liath Dalton, the director of Person-Centered Tech, a valuable resource for therapists when it comes to all things tech-related.    Liath dives into the recent changes in telehealth regulations and the impact on therapists, specifically focusing on the expiration of the federal public health emergency (PHE) and its effects on cross-jurisdictional practice and telehealth coverage.   She discusses how the expiration of the PHE does not significantly impact the temporary practice provisions or the expanded telehealth coverage under Medicare. However, and highlights the importance of checking with private payers as coverage may vary, especially for out-of-network benefits.   The conversation shifts to HIPAA compliance and the requirement for therapists to use HIPAA-compliant video platforms and BAA's with phone service providers, including cell phone providers, as s an alternative.   Throughout the episode, Liath stresses the need for therapists to ensure the security of their devices and the importance of safe harbor from HIPAA's breach notification rule.    Overall, this episode provides valuable insights and practical advice for therapists navigating the changing landscape of telehealth regulations and HIPAA compliance. To learn more, listeners are encouraged to explore Person Center Tech's website and resources. Liathana Dalton Director, Person-Centered Tech https://www.personcenteredtech.com   Helping the Helpers Since 2010 PCT's Start Here -- includes an overview of the PCT Way system for optimizing and fortifying your practice, including an interactive tool for identifying your highest priority-need and where to begin (we believe in taking an incremental approach, so that it's a manageable process) PCT's Practice Care PCT resources for Device Security (included in Practice Care Premium) 50 State Tool, Teletherapy Practice Rules by State Cross-State Due Diligence Worksheet PCT's Telemental Health Certificate Program PCT's Service Selection Workbook & Worksheets (FREE!) which provides: a process for identifying all your practice's functionality needs for client care delivery and communications, as well as internal operations. identifies the best -- efficient, effective, and affordable --specific HIPAA-compliance-compatible services to meet those functionality needs. can be utilized to refine and optimize an existing "tech stack" (the combination of services that provide for meeting a practice's functionality needs) or to create your tech stack from the ground up. This is a friendly reminder that there are always as many as three jurisdictional authorities that have a say in determining whether or not you have permission to practice across jurisdictions: the state where client is physically located at the time of session the provider's state(s) of licensure the state where the provider is physically located at the time of session You must have permission to practice/lack of restriction/prohibition to practice from *each* applicable licensing board/jurisdictional authority. For all the details on this, check out our most recent on-demand CE training on cross state practice, Cross Jurisdictional Teletherapy Practice: Case Law, Rules of Practice, and Working with Minors across State Lines, presented by Eric Ström, JD PhD LMHC -- which also includes our cross-jurisdictional permissibility to practice due diligence worksheet (that includes all 3 potentially applicable jurisdictional authorities.) ... but, "what if I do 'coaching' or 'consulting' instead of 'therapy' when I'm physically located in a jurisdiction that restricts practice like Alaska? Or, what if I do 'coaching' instead of 'therapy' when a client's located in a jurisdiction that I don't have permission to practice in?" is a question we've, understandably, had posed to us a great number of times. Well, it's not as simple as that... and all those nuances and 'devil in the details' aspects of that are something Eric expertly addressed, supported by case law examples, in the Cross Jurisdictional Teletherapy Practice training. If you're wondering about what's current in terms of how cross-jurisdictional practice works, that training contains the information and conceptual framework to empower you to navigate cross-jurisdictional practice legally. Liathana Dalton Director, Person-Centered Tech https://www.personcenteredtech.com    Key points  The expiration of the federal public health emergency does not change cross-jurisdictional practice permissibility or temporary practice provisions. Licensing boards in certain states may restrict teletherapy practice from within their borders, requiring providers to be licensed by that specific board. Permission to practice is determined by the state where the client is located, the provider's state(s) of licensure, and the state where the provider is physically located during the session. It's important to understand and comply with the jurisdictional authorities and licensing board requirements to ensure legal cross-jurisdictional practice. Person Center Tech offers resources and training to navigate cross-jurisdictional practice   Alma is on a mission to simplify access to high-quality, affordable mental health care by giving providers the tools they need to build thriving in-network private parties. Learn more about Alma.   Connect with me: Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym   The Traveling Therapist Membership: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/travelingtherapistmembership   Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai   Signup to learn more about life as Traveling Therapist: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/l2v7c3   The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/   Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab   Subscribe to the Podcast: Apple iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcast | Stitcher | Amazon |  Castbox

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Evan Dumas, your co-hosts of Group Practice Tech. In our latest episode, we share memories of our beloved Roy Huggins, founder of PCT, whom we unexpectedly lost in November 2021.  The Person Centered Tech team wanted to take the time to share our fond remembrance of him, and to hear from folks in our community, as Roy enriched so many of our lives. Please join us as we remember and celebrate Roy.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources See more memories of Roy, and to add your own if you wish. Learn more about the offerings Roy and his team at PCT created specifically for you as a mental health group practice owner.  Listen to Roy talk about the PCT Way system in his last Group Practice Tech podcast episode: Episode 223 [Practice Management] The PCT Way, What It Is and Why It Works.

As both a tech expert and mental health counselor, Roy Huggins is the bridge from the digital world to real-world client care. His clear translation of legal and technical jargon into clear and actionable information will help you apply tech and security information directly to your business and your clients' care. You'll hear episode 7 of The Practice of Therapy podcast with Roy Huggins in this throwback. He talks about tech, HIPAA, self-care, and the business side of private practice. First, Roy reveals details about his private practice journey and how he was able to use his business and technology background to start Person-Centered Tech. Roy also discusses the ethics of using technology and doing it in a way that protects clients and keeps their information secure. Later, we chat about the differences between being “HIPAA compliant” vs. “HIPAA secure.” Tune in for the importance of financial self-care in private practice and why clinicians must prepare for the constant technology changes in running a private practice. Resources Mentioned In This Episode: Person-Centered Tech Remembering Roy Easy Safe Harbor From HIPAA Breach Notification Signal and HIPAA Compliance Free Articles on Technology in Mental Health  HIPAA Staff Training for Group Practices Group Practice Tech Podcast Take The Practice of Therapy Survey Free Webinars Use the promo code "GORDON" to get 2 months of Therapy Notes free

Who's in the Room? Siri, Alexa, and Confidentiality Curt and Katie chat about how therapists can maintain confidentiality in a world of AI assistants and smart devices. What duty do clinicians have to inform clients? How can we balance confidentiality with the reality of how commonly these devices are involved in therapy? Can telehealth therapy be completely confidential and data secure? We discuss our shift in clinical responsibility, best practices, and how we can minimize exposure of clinical data to ensure the confidentiality our clients expect and deserve. In this podcast episode we talk about something therapists might not consider: smart devices and AI assistants We received a couple of requests to talk about the impact of smart devices on confidentiality and their compliance with HIPAA within a therapeutic environment. We tackle this question in depth: What are best practices for protecting client confidentiality with smart devices? Turning off the phone, or placing the phone on “airplane mode” Warning clients about their own smart devices and confidentiality risks The ethical responsibilities to inform about limits of confidentiality and take precautions It's all about giving clients choice and information What should therapists consider when smart devices and AI assistants are in the room? “It's not to say we have to be luddites, it's that we have to disclose the potential limits of confidentiality that clients have come to expect.”  – Curt Widhalm Whistle-blower reports on how often these devices are actually listening Turning off your phone is a lot cheaper than identity theft Consider your contacts, geolocation, and Wi-Fi connection Some of this, as we progress into a more technological world, might be unavoidable How do Alexa and Siri impact HIPAA compliance for therapists? The importance of end-to-end encryption for all HIPAA activities (and your smart device may not be compliant) The cost of HIPAA violations if identity theft can be traced back Understand the risks you are taking, do what you can, and remember no one is perfect What can modern therapists do with their smart devices? “Whether it's convenience or practicality that has you putting your client's contacts into your phone, we have to think beyond that because it really can harm our ability to keep that data safe.” – Katie Vernoy GPS location services can be left on for a safety reason, emergency services use GPS location Adjusting settings for voice activation, data sharing, when apps are running, locations, etc. Turning off and airplane mode are also options Always let the client know the limits of confidentiality Our Generous Sponsor for this episode of the Modern Therapist's Survival Guide: Buying Time LLC Buying Time is a full team of Virtual Assistants, with a wide variety of skill sets to support your business. From basic admin support, customer service, and email management to marketing and bookkeeping. They've got you covered. Don't know where to start? Check out the systems inventory checklist which helps business owners figure out what they don't want to do anymore and get those delegated asap. You can find that checklist at http://buyingtimellc.com/systems-checklist/ Buying Time's VA's support businesses by managing email communications, CRM or automation systems, website admin and hosting, email marketing, social media, bookkeeping and much more. Their sole purpose is to create the opportunity for you to focus on supporting those you serve while ensuring that your back office runs smoothly. With a full team of VA's it gives the opportunity to hire for one role and get multiple areas of support. There's no reason to be overwhelmed with running your business with this solution available. Book a consultation to see where and how you can get started getting the support you need - https://buyingtimellc.com/book-consultation/ Resources for Modern Therapists mentioned in this Podcast Episode: We've pulled together resources mentioned in this episode and put together some handy-dandy links. Please note that some of the links below may be affiliate links, so if you purchase after clicking below, we may get a little bit of cash in our pockets. We thank you in advance! Psychotherapy in Ontario: How Confidential is my Therapy? By Beth Mares, Registered Psychotherapist The Privacy Problem with Digital Assistants by Kaveh Waddell Hey Siri and Alexa: Let's Talk Privacy Practices by Elizabeth Weise, USA Today Patient and Consumer Safety Risks When Using Conversational Assistants for Medical Information: An Observational Study of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, 2018 Hey Siri: Did you Break Confidentiality, or did I? By Nicole M. Arcuri Sanders, Counseling Today Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant Not HIPAA Compliant, Psychiatry Advisor Hey Alexa, are you HIPAA compliant? 2018 Person-Centered Tech   Relevant Episodes of MTSG Podcast: Which Theoretical Orientation Should You Choose? Is Your Practice Ready for Paid Digital Marketing? An Interview with John Sanders Waiving Goodbye to Telehealth Progress: An interview with Dr. Ben Caldwell, LMFT Malpractice is No Joke   Who we are: Curt Widhalm, LMFT Curt Widhalm is in private practice in the Los Angeles area. He is the cofounder of the Therapy Reimagined conference, an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University and CSUN, a former Subject Matter Expert for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, former CFO of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and a loving husband and father. He is 1/2 great person, 1/2 provocateur, and 1/2 geek, in that order. He dabbles in the dark art of making "dad jokes" and usually has a half-empty cup of coffee somewhere nearby. Learn more at: www.curtwidhalm.com Katie Vernoy, LMFT Katie Vernoy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, coach, and consultant supporting leaders, visionaries, executives, and helping professionals to create sustainable careers. Katie, with Curt, has developed workshops and a conference, Therapy Reimagined, to support therapists navigating through the modern challenges of this profession. Katie is also a former President of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. In her spare time, Katie is secretly siphoning off Curt's youthful energy, so that she can take over the world. Learn more at: www.katievernoy.com A Quick Note: Our opinions are our own. We are only speaking for ourselves – except when we speak for each other, or over each other. We're working on it. Our guests are also only speaking for themselves and have their own opinions. We aren't trying to take their voice, and no one speaks for us either. Mostly because they don't want to, but hey. Stay in Touch with Curt, Katie, and the whole Therapy Reimagined #TherapyMovement: www.mtsgpodcast.com www.therapyreimagined.com https://www.facebook.com/therapyreimagined/ https://twitter.com/therapymovement https://www.instagram.com/therapyreimagined/ Consultation services with Curt Widhalm or Katie Vernoy: The Fifty-Minute Hour Connect with the Modern Therapist Community: Our Facebook Group – The Modern Therapists Group   Modern Therapist's Survival Guide Creative Credits: Voice Over by DW McCann https://www.facebook.com/McCannDW/ Music by Crystal Grooms Mangano http://www.crystalmangano.com/ Transcript for this episode of the Modern Therapist's Survival Guide podcast (Autogenerated): Curt Widhalm 00:00 This episode of the modern therapist Survival Guide is sponsored by buying time Katie Vernoy  00:04 Buying Time has a full team of virtual assistants with a wide variety of skill sets to support your business. From basic admin support customer service and email management to marketing and bookkeeping, they've got you covered. Don't know where to start, check out the system's inventory checklist, which helps business owners figure out what they don't want to do anymore and get those delegated ASAP. You can find that checklist at buying time. llc.com forward slash systems stash checklist. Curt Widhalm  00:31 Listen at the end of the episode for more information. Announcer  00:34 You're listening to the modern therapist survival guide where therapists live, breathe, and practice as human beings. To support you as a whole person and a therapist. Here are your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy. Curt Widhalm  00:50 Welcome back modern therapists. This is the modern therapist Survival Guide. I'm Curt Widhalm, with Katie Vernoy. And this is the podcast for therapists about all things therapy, the things that we consider the things that we don't. And stay is one of those days where we're going to be talking about some of the things that we might not consider. And this really comes with some of those smart devices in our homes, our offices, potentially even in our clients homes, and what it means for confidentiality, especially in terms of compliance with things like HIPAA, and who's always listening. And you know, Google a few years ago changed kind of their motto from do no evil to whatever it is. Now I just know that they're, they're no longer committing to not doing evil. But I want to start with kind of this idea of when we especially start with telehealth clients, but this is also going to be true when it comes to our in person sessions with things like smartphones and just kind of being cool in the modern era and having things like Amazon echoes or Google Docs, or any of these kinds of things in our offices of are those things always listening, and what does this mean for client data?   Katie Vernoy  02:07 That's a big intro. Yeah, I, I've worried about this for a while. And that's why I don't have a any kind of AI in my office, although after reading some of these articles I actually do because I have my phone in my office because I receive messages. And I do all kinds of stuff. So it's a little bit scary to think about what might be listening.   Curt Widhalm  02:33 So I mean, this is where I think any of us who have a Windows laptop, there's Cortana, if you have one of these Amazon devices, there's Alexa, if somebody you know, has Siri, these things are listening. And well, some of the tech stuff, you know, might say that they're only listening for key words that would activate them articles that we're looking at here is what we're going to dive into today. As far as does this mean that our sessions with clients are actually as confidential as we're talking about? And what does this mean for our own best practices as we go forward, having smart devices in our offices in our homes, and potentially even in our client's homes. And the way that this conversation initially came up was I was at a dinner party with some other therapists and talking about great dinner party talk that happens wherever I'm at with other therapists, which is,   Katie Vernoy  03:34 Yeah, only although therapists with me, I tend to   Curt Widhalm  03:37 Get people asking a lot ethics questions. And one of the questions that was up for discussion was our duties when it comes to talking with clients about confidentiality, particularly when it comes to telehealth. And I was describing that we have a responsibility to talk with our clients about the limits of confidentiality, that may include privacy in their own homes, if there's potentially somebody who's walking down the hallway, outside their bedroom or office door, wherever they're doing sessions from, and one of the other therapists at this party said, Well, what about any of the smart devices? Do you ever warn them about Google or Alexa or Siri actually listening? And that's what sparked this. So if you ever want a podcast episode, I am available for dinner parties for you to float ideas by.   Katie Vernoy  04:28 Okay, okay, there we go. And so this   Curt Widhalm  04:31 Has led to some research on our part here as far as what is our responsibility? And what do we need to do with our clients as it pertains to some of this AI discussion, even when we don't think that it's happening?   Katie Vernoy  04:47 Well, to me, when you propose this idea for the podcast, the first thing that came to mind was really around convenience versus confidentiality. Because when we're looking at a lot of these things, When we don't turn off voice activation, when we don't make sure that we're not connected to everything through our phones, and all of the contacts and everything within our phones, data is at risk. I mean, even if it says little as a GPA, GPS colocation, it could be a contact could be content that you're actually discussing. I mean, there's, there's a lot of different ways that folks use their phones kind of just live their lives and the convenience of having Google read through your emails, or, you know, whatever it is to be able to scan for things that need to go on your calendar, or to scan for things. You know, like, I love that I can, you know, in the before times when I was traveling, I loved that Google knew where I was flying to what flight I was on, and I would be able to get that information and notifications like you should be leaving for the airport right now. So I think it's something where the convenience of having the AI tracking us and listening to us and reading our emails, and all of that has sometimes trumped our need for privacy.   Curt Widhalm  06:09 The first article that I came across in this is an article from counseling today. This is publication of the American Counseling Association. This article was by Nicole R. Curry Sanders called Hey, Siri, did you break confidentiality? Or did I in this article, Dr. Curry Sanders actually cites an article from The Guardian newspaper, talking about an apple contractor who's a whistleblower. And this contractor is quoted as saying that they regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, recordings of couples having sex as a part of this contractors job providing quality control. So these devices are, at least historically have listened. Now, this flies in the face of what some of the tech articles that I'm seeing out there who say that these devices are only listening for those keywords that activate them, but that they're actually constantly on. And according to this contractors cited in this Guardian article, they are recording and sharing this information. So it's very theoretically easily believed that it's also listening in on your therapy sessions. If that's the case, with Apple having this information, everybody who's got an iPhone, that's either bringing it into your session, these devices are potentially listening to everything that's being discussed in your sessions, which is scary, because I imagine that most therapists are not talking about this as a potential breaking of the limits of confidentiality and the promise of confidentiality that makes therapy so sacred.   Katie Vernoy  07:55 And I think that as a society, we have kind of cosign on this lack of privacy, I mean, Siri, or Alexa or Google or whatever, potentially are, they're constantly listening to all of us. And that's part of life. And so are we, are we responsible above this risk that all of us are willing to take by having phones in our pockets,   Curt Widhalm  08:20 And I don't think many of us are, and we'll include the links to what we're talking about here in our show notes. You can find those over at MTS g podcast.com. The next thing that I'm looking at here is a blog post on psychiatry, advisor.com called Alexa Siri, Google Assistant are not HIPAA compliant, and it warns against. Obviously, we all at this point should know that you shouldn't be doing your notes onto one of these devices using some of these voice prompts. But if this article also warns about don't add clients to your schedule using one of these either because it's not an end to end encrypted sort of device, which is one of the requirements of HIPAA, and that HIPAA violations can cost people hundreds or 1000s of dollars. If identity theft can be traced back to them think of how convenient it is to just turn off your phone. So that way, and how much potential money this may end up saving you by just doing the simplest of things.   Katie Vernoy  09:28 Yes, yes, I again, but I still want to you know, we're I know we're   Curt Widhalm  09:34 Any good one ethics discussion should leave people anxious.   Katie Vernoy  09:39 But my question still stands. If I do my part because I am a HIPAA provider. I put my phone on Do Not Disturb or whatever I airplane mode. I put my phone on airplane mode. I don't have any other devices with listening capability in my room, and I only use my electronic health record for scheduling and communication and HIPAA compliant email, blah, blah, blah, like I do all the things, and my client still has a smartphone in their pocket, like do I actually need to warn them about that smartphone in their pocket, because they already theoretically are agreeing to this constant surveillance. By having that smartphone in their pocket,   Curt Widhalm  10:22 I think that we have a duty. And this is reflected in our ethics codes. And we have a duty to tell our clients even things that they may not consider as it pertains to therapy about, okay, where limits of confidentiality may lie? Well, there may be the constant surveillance of these devices in everyday life, but to further prompt them, at least, and especially in our first telehealth session with them that, hey, just in case you haven't considered this, your smart devices in the room may also be listening to your therapy session. And well, you know, it's not the same thing as a sibling or somebody else, brother, parents child's, you know, walking down the hallway, there is the potential that some of this information may be transmitted to people that you don't want to and if that's a consideration, if you want to unplug those devices in the general listening area right now, now would be the time to do so.   Katie Vernoy  11:24 Okay. I mean, that seems fair, I think there's going to be people talking about this, now that we've put this podcast episode out. So I think we also don't want to freak people out. I mean, I think about also there, yes, the data is being transmitted, but it's kind of like how much data are people actually looking at. I mean, it's, it's such an inundation of all of this surveillance data, that the likelihood of someone honing in on a therapy session feels small as part of quality control. And I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about it, I'm just saying, I'm gonna. Curt Widhalm  11:59 Wave your argument away and saying that the likelihood of somebody breaking into your office and working at client files is also very small. But that does not absolve you of your responsibility to take the precautions to let our clients know about the limits of confidentiality,   Katie Vernoy  12:17 I think it's I think, in talking about it with clients, the way you just said, it sounded a little paranoid, you   Curt Widhalm  12:22 Are being listened to. Katie Vernoy  12:25 You're being listened to. It's I think there's potentially a clinical clinically relevant way to talk about it. I mean, I think, as you know, smart devices that have voice activation potentially can get activated by words that we use, you may want to turn those on, or turn them off their devices in your room, turn them off, turn off voice activation, whatever. But like, there are devices listening in your room, you may want to unplug them. You sounded a little paranoid. It's true. But But I think we want to I don't know, it just it feels a little bit. I don't know paranoid to me, I don't I don't know what   Curt Widhalm  13:03 Your paranoia is my legal precaution of that. And it doesn't have to be presented in that paranoid sort of way. It's just, you know, hey, it's known at this point, like little disclosure, here, we have a little you know, Alexa thing sitting in our living room, sometimes our TV activates it. And then we get little ads on the Alexa based on whatever show that's activated Alexa. So all of a sudden, we're getting, you know, Airbnb recommendations of, you know, wherever the TV show we just watched was located, it's not that much of a stretch of the imagination to think these things are listening, it's happened a couple of times with my phone, just in this episode, it doesn't have to be done in a paranoia sort of way. It's just kind of a, hey, if your privacy means that much to you, and you're gonna be talking about these sensitive things, you might want to consider shutting off those voice activated things in your room.   Katie Vernoy  13:55 Well, I mean, the other thing that we talked about before starting to record is also the the geolocation and potentially contacts on your phone. And so to me, I feel like, at some point there, if we are going to be in a technological society, there may be things that we just cannot avoid. And maybe I'm wrong. I mean, maybe do I do I just never turn on my phone when another person's in my office, like, I feel like being able to not have, you know, if someone's actually physically coming to my office, and our phones have crossed GPS, and all of our apps say like, Oh, they're in the same room, they must like the same things and then start feeding us all of the ads, on the things that either we've talked about, because voice activation is on, or the things that each other have searched for. I mean, it starts to get a little bit nutty, to like, basically be Luddites at the moments during which we're doing therapy.   Curt Widhalm  14:53 It's not to say that we have to be Luddites, it's that we have to disclose the potential So limits of confidentiality that clients may be coming to expect sharing on a Wi Fi network, if you're a well intentioned therapist who has a parent who wants to be, you know, on the Wi Fi network in your office while their kids doing therapy. That's one way that some of these algorithms work to match up people who should be connected on some of the social media sites, if you've got a client's phone number saved in your phone, and you've given third party apps, the permission to scan through your phonebook. These are other ways that you're potentially transmitting data to people that you have maybe lied to people about in your Notice of Privacy Practices that you give to your clients, if the information that you say that what you're doing with it, and how it's going to be shared. And you're sharing this information in inadvertent ways, I'm not aware of any court cases where a therapist has been taken to court on this, but I could see where a therapist could be held liable by having some of this data shared in ways that they never heard that their Notice of Privacy Practices, you know, they take their boilerplate language from somebody down the street, who took it from somebody down the street, who took it from somebody down the street, who took it from actually a paid layer that they actually were responsible with. So since we tend to copy and paste and borrow and pay homage to other people's paperwork, by just borrowing and stealing, and calling it our own, we may not actually be aware of everything in some of these Notice of Privacy Practices that we give out, if what you're doing is transmitting some of this client data, you at least should document that you've had some of these discussions with your clients, as a way of limiting your liability when it comes to having any of these kinds of devices around you. And if the conversation and your own anxieties hasn't pointed it out. So far, we all have these devices, this should be a regular part of the conversation. And should be something where especially talking about a lot of protected health information, especially if you're already a HIPAA covered entity, you have to be aware of this   Katie Vernoy  17:11 Going back to kind of the original thought that I had around this is that whether it's convenience, or practicality that has you put the contacts in your phone, for example, I think that we have to think beyond that. Because it really can harm our ability to keep those that data say I mean, I think about inadvertently, I have done a really good job at keeping my data away from Facebook, I don't take any of the things I don't log into anything with Facebook, I've tried to keep Facebook fairly separate, as well as I use a really old email. And it's not connected to my practice in any way. I'm not sure that anybody else wants to do that. But they're like, I don't share contacts with any of my social media. So my phone is never mind for those things I actively go through and, and deny those permissions. But to me, it could be very simple, even a slip of your of a button press so to speak, where you've shared all your contact to LinkedIn, Twitter, social media, any other social media platform that you allow all of the permissions on your phone, because it's easier because like, oh, well, I'll find my friends, I don't have to go search for them individually. I mean, there's so many ways that are very seductive, that we could do this in an inadvertent data sharing,   Curt Widhalm  18:33 You know, this is no commentary on you. But you identified yourself not as like a super tech savvy person. And yet, I would say that what you just described is more tech savvy than what most people would think about. And that's why we have some of the responsibilities that we do in talking with clients about how their health information may go beyond just our therapy sessions here. Some of these articles that we've seen talk about, you know, don't do things like write your notes, you know, pay Google write in this patient chart, X, Y, and Z. Like, those things would seem obvious, especially to a lot of our modern therapist community who would be like, yeah, that totally makes sense. But just actually having the presence of any of these devices around us, is, you know, a matter of lifestyle for some people and it's knowing to go in and how to shut off some of these things or be able to talk with some of our clients about this because something that's happened during the COVID pandemic and with a lot of telehealth is, we've also become de facto, it people when it comes to explaining to some of our clients just even how to make some of the telehealth stuff work. And so if you know our EHR platforms, and as simple as they get made before for user experiences, if people are still having trouble with those knowing to go in and where to look on a phone for here's where data gets shared back and forth with each other, well, that might be a little bit outside. The scope of what we want to talk about with clients, it's sometimes more simple as far as if you have these devices. And you don't want the conversation of what we're what we're talking about being shared with any of the apps on your phone. Best practice might be just to turn them off during our sessions. But if you leave them on, just know that we can't guarantee complete confidentiality, that's it.   Katie Vernoy  20:20 That seems fair. Um, one of the things that you said earlier, though, struck me because I think that you and I are like, obviously, we wouldn't, you know, kind of transcribe our notes or, you know, kind of do voice over notes on our phone. But that's kind of an accessibility issue for some folks who can't type or handwrite their notes. And I would be very curious on how to protect in that regard. You know, if I've got a voice recorder, that helps me to do my notes, is it within a HIPAA compliant platform that goes directly into my notes? I mean, this might be things that people need to research is how do all of my apps interact? And how do I make sure that I'm not there's not more than what I'm working on open and listening? Because I think that's hard. And I don't know that I wouldn't say I'm tech savvy, I think I actually am. But I think it's something where understanding how privacy and data works, and how things interact with each other how there's data handoffs, I think those types of things feel like they are beyond the scope of being a therapist, but I like what you're saying is like, then just turn these devices off. I guess the only problem is, I have clients that use their phone for their telehealth session. So I don't know if you know, I use simple practice. So I don't know simple practice, then make sure that other apps on the phone are not listening. I don't know if there's even a way to do that. And or if there is a way for people to, you know, like, do you go through and you just kind of disable each of the apps that you don't want to listen, I mean, it feels like there's, there's a challenge here to really having a practical solution, unless we can be certain that the platform that we're using for our video calls on the phone are actually is actually secure. And my assumption is that's the case, I just don't know what else is listening, if and if that's possible.   Curt Widhalm  22:11 And in preparation of this episode, I did not do a deep dive into how, you know, our EHR platforms when they are used on our devices, more popular EHR companies, simple practice, you mentioned those video sessions, if there is a HIPAA compliance, if they have signed a BA agreement with you, those are end to end encrypted communications. Now, what I did not do a deep dive on is does that also prevent other apps and things from also listening, if it is being used on this solitary device that your session is on TBD? You know, follow us on our social media, or whatever. And we'll sort through that through that. It does come back to this point. And especially as we can see some of these tech companies moving more and more into the healthcare space that they're going to make closer and closer approximate efforts to become HIPAA compliant. And this is always kind of a cautionary sort of thing, where I'm a part of a lot of Facebook groups, with therapists, a lot of online communities, and I see a number of people wanting to do things as inexpensively as possible. But without those ba agreements, as business associate agreements, you're not guaranteed to have the same a HIPAA protections if that data does get leaked out or shared in other ways. And so these are your responsibilities as therapists when it comes to confidentiality and this AI conversation.   Katie Vernoy  23:44 And there's a lot of different ways to try to do that. I was one of you were talking, I was thinking about a conversation I had with Roy Huggins from persons under attack, who unfortunately recently just died. And it's a very tragic loss for our profession. And just the way that he would talk about HIPAA compliance. And I'm sure Person Center tech will continue that work was that you have to understand the risks that you're taking, and do what you can and then be comfortable with a risk you're still taking because he's not be perfect. And so I think it's I think it's, it's hard because it can be very scary, because we can't necessarily get to a place where we've we've taken every single precaution. I mean, we could go to a black site, have everyone come in separate ways, no GPS phones are left at their houses, and then be in a room together and then leave. There might be other liability if nobody knows where you are, and you're alone in a room with a client. But I think as a society, I don't think we can protect ourselves from every single thing. But these are things that we can protect ourselves against. pretty simply, I mean, you just turn it off. Um, I think, and that's something that I don't know that a lot of people were thinking about this. Now,   Curt Widhalm  24:57 One of the questions on one of these articles got asked, I think is worth discussing here is for people who are working at sites that require you to have a cell phone on you for safety reasons, whether it be in the floor of a hospital male use system, if you're working for an agency where you go and visit clients houses or whatever, it's what did you see, in kind of the responses to those articles there,   Katie Vernoy  25:26 The main thing is to turn off voice activation, so that there's not a voice activation element. So it's not recording the content, making your phone, a regular cell phone and trying to get rid of some of the other, you know, kind of the smart elements of it, I think can be very helpful. The thing that you can't avoid, if you're trying to go for safety is really, you got to keep GPS on if you need to make an emergency call, they need to be able to ping your cell phone. And so I think there's there are some, some safety issues or not, there are some privacy issues that you can't avoid if you need to have a cell phone. And it's for safety reasons. But I think it's something where the voice assistant technologies, those things are maybe not that easy to find, but but you can, you know, there's some instructions in this, and I'll put this in the show notes so that you can find it. But you know, turning off those voice activation, making sure that you've made yourself as tight as possible. As far as any kind of data that's going out turning off, you know, all of the apps, making sure there's nothing running in the background, even going through your apps and having the permission set to only while the app is on, I think is helpful, because then if Facebook is tracking your location, and Instagram is tracking your location, and Google and whatever, if those are tracking your location all the time, then there's a lot of data being shared. But if you turn those, if you only have those on when you have those apps open, and you consciously close them before you go in my hope is that they're not also running in the background. I've also had something where I put my phone on really low battery use before where it only allows for phone. So it basically shuts down anything running in the background so that you don't have things going that you don't know about. But you know, if you're wanting safety going all the way to turning it off or airplane mode is going to maybe an advisable for safety.   Curt Widhalm  27:24 And in these conversations and what I would suggest is let your clients know what the limits of confidentiality are. And and this doesn't have to be a huge in depth pieces of conversations. Some of your clients may have more interest in what you're talking about, or paranoia depending on why you're seeing those clients. But we would love to hear your experiences with this kind of stuff or thoughts or considerations that you have. You can share those with us on our social media. You can find links to those in our show notes. And once again, those are over at MTS g podcast.com. You can join our Facebook group, the modern therapist group and spill your data to us and Mark Zuckerberg. And until next time, I'm Kurt Wilhelm with Katie Vernoy and Siri.   Katie Vernoy  28:17 Thanks again to our sponsor buying time   Curt Widhalm  28:20 Buying Time's VAs support businesses by managing email communications, CRM or automation systems, website admin and hosting email marketing, social media, bookkeeping and much more. Their sole purpose is to create the opportunity for you to focus on supporting those you serve while ensuring that your back office runs smoothly with a full team of VAs gives the opportunity to hire for one role and get multiple areas of support. There's no reason to be overwhelmed with running your business with this solution available.               Katie Vernoy  28:48 Book a consultation to see where and how you can get started getting the support you need. That's buyingtimellc.com/book-consultation once again, buying time llc.com forward slash book dash consultation.   Announcer  29:04 Thank you for listening to the modern therapist Survival Guide. Learn more about who we are and what we do at mtsgpodcast.com. You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter. And please don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any of our episodes.

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about The PCT Way.  We discuss how we developed The PCT Way; simplifying HIPAA compliance needs; minimizing financial cost as well as time, energy, anxiety, and cognitive overhead; meeting your practice needs and client needs in a way that's efficient and reliably HIPAA compliant; systems vs. frameworks; solo vs. group practice needs; system bloat; the five primary steps of The PCT Way (service selection, HIPAA training, device security, risk analysis, and building your HIPAA security compliance manual); new features on the Person Centered Tech website; why HIPAA compliance is optional; and being proactive with the PCT Way.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources The PCT Way for Group Practices - a system for making your *whole* practice work. Learn more, and start for free. Group Practice Care: PCT Way is the system. Practice care is the service that supports you through it. Celebratory Launch + Black Friday + Cyber Monday Sale. Save up to 25% on Group Practice Care (annual) *and* role-based staff HIPAA, ethics, and teletherapy trainings (CE for clinical staff trainings). Build Your Team -- add your team and assign and track their HIPAA Security Tasks, including: Our nationally respected, role-based HIPAA and privacy ethics training built for mental health staff (CE for clinical staff) Vital, relevant security awareness training Personal device securing (BYOD) and registration Automate kind reminders when needed Track your team's progress and completion status Manage your team with separate, revocable logins, assigned content, and detailed training logs so you can stay on top of your team's HIPAA compliance tasks — without the drama.

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking with Uriah Guilford of The Productive Therapist about helping therapists find the tools they need to be successful.  We discuss Uriah's business directory for therapists and its origins, how to pick the right service for your needs, common mistakes therapists make when choosing service providers, how good support is life-changing, focusing on what we're good at, tips on how and when to delegate, how to afford help when you're starting out, the toll of holding onto all the hats as a leader, spending your energy on your vision, intake coordinator as a sales position, learning from negative experiences with delegating, trusting people to fulfill their roles, and some of Uriah's personal favorite services for group practice.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources The Productive Therapist The Productive Therapist Business Directory for Therapists PCT's Free Service Selection for Mental Health Group Practices Workbook Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) *Free* Distress Less Series (Therapy for Therapists) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs (that also help you leverage your practice tech tools to optimize functionality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness!)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about payment processors like Zelle, Paypal, and Venmo.  We discuss the term “HIPAA compliant”; compliance as a process; using “compliant” products in a noncompliant way; our favorite example, Google Workspace; unencrypted email; special HIPAA exceptions, like the conduit exception; the exception for payment processing; making informed choices from a risk management perspective; apps selling user information; collecting payments through your practice management system and Stripe; Square for solo practice; and payment processing fees. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources CE Training: Teletherapy and Remote Payment Methods, Legal-Ethical and Practical Considerations Article: Banks and HIPAA: Checks & Credit Cards vs. Receipts & Invoices  More details on the HIPAA exemption for financial institutions Article: Clients Have the Right to Receive Unencrypted Emails (and Texts) Under HIPAA PCT's Free, Editable Electronic Communication Consent Form PCT's Free Service Selection for Mental Health Group Practices Workbook *Free* Distress Less Series (Therapy for Therapists) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs (that also help you leverage your practice tech tools to optimize functionality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness!) Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) 

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we discuss the fight for the future of mental health private practice.  We chat about the Amazons of mental health, qualitative differences in care for group practices and mental health platforms, whether group practice is less viable right now, minute mental health, the therapeutic relationship, consumer choice, differentiating your practice from what these services can offer, payment parity for teletherapy, coverage parity, meeting the current demand for therapy, getting paid as a legislative issue, bipartisan support for telehealth coverage and payment parity, and ways to advocate for payment parity. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Parity Laws by State Will Telehealth Payment Parity Be Permanent or a Passing Fancy? Previous Episode of Group Practice Tech - Episode 126: [The Teletherapy Lawyer] How Are We Going to Get Teletherapy Payment Parity After COVID? *Free* Distress Less Series (Therapy for Therapists)   Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)      PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs, including PCT's Teletherapy Certified Practice Program   

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about fear-mongering around HIPAA compliance.  We discuss the HIPAA police and why people think they're real, the consequences of noncompliance, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), approaching security from a fear-based perspective vs a practical perspective, what to do when there's a breach of information, how disclosures frequently happen, notifying the OCR and clients, managing client trust, taking remedial action, not letting stress escalate, that notification doesn't equal punishment, reducing the likelihood of a breach, real risk scenarios for group practice, not acting out of fear, and our upcoming Distress Less series.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources *Free* Distress Less Series (Therapy for Therapists)  Article: What is HIPAA Breach Notification? PCT's Risk Analysis and Risk Mitigation Planning HIPAA Security Module (done *for* you) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs (that also help you leverage your practice tech tools to optimize functionality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness!)  Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)   

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about ways to manage the onboarding and offboarding processes in group practice.   We discuss why therapists + practice leaders in particular are burned out right now, why so many folks are going out on their own, how HIPAA is involved in onboarding and offboarding, the HIPAA Security Rule, access to PHI, background checks, due diligence, identifying roles within your practice, ways to optimize onboarding for efficiency and user friendliness, checklists, revoking access to PHI, documentation, access to records, dealing with contentious offboarding, and our upcoming free seminar on onboarding and offboarding with compliance and ease in mind.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Onboarding and Offboarding with Compliance and Ease in Mind -- Live Seminar on growth management and onboarding/offboarding clinicians for group practice leadership *Free* Distress Less Series (Therapy for Therapists) PCT's Free Service Selection for Mental Health Group Practices Workbook    Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)

Your patient's confidentiality is one of the most important aspects of their therapy experience… so how do you ensure that all of your technology and softwares are HIPAA compliant without breaking the bank? That's where Person Centered Tech comes in!We're chatting with Roy and Liath, the co-founders of Person Centered Tech, about their company and how they use technology and security as a lens to evaluate and update your operations for simplicity, usability, and cost effectiveness in your practice.Roy  Huggins, LPC NCC was an independent web developer for many years before making the transition to a therapy private practice. He quickly found that the mental health profession needed expert guidance on technology topics. Roy founded Person-Centered Tech (PCT) in 2010 after helping answer a colleague's questions about legal and ethical use of email. His research to answer that first question exposed him to the industry's difficulties applying the HIPAA-mandated risk assessment perspective to issues of technology. Liath Dalton is PCT's deputy director and a co-owner. As the group practice service plan manager, Liath is especially passionate about helping group practice leaders be resourced and supported in navigating the security compliance process and identifying the solutions and processes that meet the particular needs of their practices. Liath's consultation area of expertise is focused on selecting the right combination of services and tech that not only meet the legal-ethical needs of mental health practices, but also the functionality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness needs as well.Episode Highlights:The Intersection Between HIPAA Compliance & Financial SecurityThere is a usually a concern for an expense or cost for HIPAA violations/complaintsHaving your practice set up on a robust security foundation from the start is optimal to make a greater impact on saving money in the long runThere are a number of factors within your group practice that require HIPAA compliance, and some softwares for each function are more affordable than othersTeam meetings, virtual sessions, online communication, etc.It is essential to have the right tools to make sure you maintain your client's confidentiality, but that shouldn't have to break the bankHow do you determine the most cost-effective and efficient services for your specific group practice?Most therapists rely on their colleagues and other professionals in their community for suggestions on what services to useWhile the services you're being recommended may be great – they may not be the best fit for YOUR business – that's where Person Centered Tech comes in!Links & Resources:Person Centered Tech Group Practice Tech Podcast Radical Acceptance by Tara BrachBurnout by Emily Nagoski, PhD GreenOak Accounting Therapy For Your Money Podcast

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about stress management and money with Julie Herres from GreenOak Accounting.  We discuss overwhelm, stress cycles, why things are so stressful for group practice owners right now, private practice trends, time vs. money, ways to manage increased stresses, business health and money from a holistic perspective, hiring challenges, managing fear and scarcity, investing in support, delegating tips, practical steps to manage finances effectively, service selection and setting up systems, and HIPAA considerations with accounting software. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Green Oak Accounting, specialized accounting for mental health professionals and group practices Julie and Green Oak Accounting's podcast, Therapy for Your Money Julie's EHRs and QuickBooks articl PCT's Free Service Selection for Mental Health Group Practices Workbook   Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about using the internet securely wherever you are.  We discuss what an internet connection actually is, vulnerabilities in network connections, network security, guest networks, physical security of network hardware, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), avoiding lag time with a VPN, using personal devices, cellular hotspots, and our course on security and home offices.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Remote Workplace HIPAA Security Module (document pack + training)  On-demand training: Teletherapy From the Home or Mobile Office: HIPAA, Ethical, and Standard of Care Issues (1 CE credit hour, legal-ethical)   Article: With a VPN, Your Staff Can Work Just About Anywhere Article: The Traveling Telemental Health Therapist's Best Friend: VPNs  Free Service Selection PCT Workbook  Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about internal systems that can help optimize and streamline your group practice. We discuss our new Facebook group (which is full of resources), Loom as a tool to share information, uniformity in training and resourcing, replicating and delegating, Google Workspace, intra sites to organize resources, creating practice culture virtually, Bring Your Own Device and remote device management, and Gusto to streamline payroll and HR. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Care with PCT Facebook Group Group Practice Care with Person Centered Tech is an open space for mental health group practice leaders to come together for support (and responsive, curated resources) around what it takes to build an effective, secure, and ethical group practice where tech and client care go hand-in-hand. Free Service Selection PCT Workbook CE training: Smooth and Secure Use of Phone, Text, Email, and Video to Meet Modern Clients Where They Are: Legal-Ethical and Real-World Considerations   Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)

In this guest episode, Person-Centered Tech (PCT) Co-Owners, Liathana Dalton and Roy Huggins, clarify important topics that relate to your practice and HIPAA. In this episode, you'll hear Roy and Liath talk about: Who is considered workforce according to HIPAA (and what that means for your practice) The role of Business Associates at your office The importance of knowing your state's labor laws as they relate to 1099s and employees, and ways that will influence how you implement your plan for being a HIPAA compliant practice. HIPAA can be confusing, and you can always reach out to PCT for assistance! Here's how you can connect with Roy and Liath from Person-Centered Tech. https://personcenteredtech.com/about/ (https://personcenteredtech.com/about/) website: https://personcenteredtech.com/ (https://personcenteredtech.com/) podcast, Group Practice Tech: https://personcenteredtech.com/group-hipaa/podcast/ (https://personcenteredtech.com/group-hipaa/podcast/) Social media: FB and IG @personcenteredtech Want to connect with the Protecting Your Practice Co-Hosts? Find us at: protectingyourpractice.com FB: @protectingyourpractice IG: @protectingyourpractice To work with Dan if you're a mental health practitioner in Maryland, go to: https://danielmayerlaw.com/ (https://danielmayerlaw.com/ ) To consult with Melissa about your private practice and group practice questions, go to: intentionalpractice.net

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about software options for video sessions.  We discuss Roy's current stance on Zoom, security + legal concerns with Zoom, positives to the increased scrutiny of regulators, improvements that have been made, alternatives to Zoom for group practice owners, important features to consider when choosing video software, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and our upcoming presentation on smooth and secure communications with clients.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources CE training: Smooth and Secure Use of Phone, Text, Email, and Video to Meet Modern Clients Where They Are: Legal-Ethical and Real-World Considerations  Free Service Selection PCT Workbook  Article: Alternatives to Zoom for Groups and Family Therapy    Article: Zoom Might Be Bad For Therapy PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs, including PCT's Teletherapy Certified Practice Program   Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) 

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about communication challenges that come up in group practice.  We discuss meeting the modern client where they are; the evolution of services to help client communication; client portals; functionality, affordability, and efficiency; the security circle; common security challenges with phone, text, and email services; confidentiality issues vs. availability issues; our free service selection workbook; recommendations for phone service + messaging providers; recommendations for secure email providers; escrow email; and our upcoming presentation that goes more in depth on solutions to communication needs in group practice.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Pay-What-You-Can Live Legal-Ethical CE event: Smooth and Secure Use of Phone, Text, Email, and Video to Meet Modern Clients Where They Are: Legal-Ethical and Real-World Considerations Free Service Selection PCT Workbook Free Live Event — 1 Legal-Ethical CE Credit Hours on Risk Management for Group Practices Introduction to HIPAA Security for Group Practice Leaders Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about some confusing new legislation out of Connecticut, and why it matters to group practices everywhere.  We discuss new telehealth legislation passed in Connecticut, difficulties with getting clarification from Connecticut officials about what the new law means, miscommunication about new laws, what's reasonable vs. what's correct, legal gray areas, taking reasonable action, and documenting due diligence. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Article: Confusion in Connecticut For Out of State Teletherapy Providers and Clients CE training: Cross-Border Practice in the Age of Telehealth: Interstate and International Mental Health Practice, 2021 Edition Teletherapy Practice Rules by State For Counselors, MFTs, Psychologists, and Clinical Social Workers FREE worksheet: "Legality and Permissibility to Practice Across Jurisdictions in the United States for Mental Health Clinicians" Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about HB 3308, new legislation out of Illinois, and why it matters for group practice owners everywhere.  We discuss payment parity, telehealth justice, mass scaling of telehealth through companies like Talkspace and BetterHelp, the cheapening of telehealth, clinicians making up the difference, client choice, the nuances of HB 3308, and how we can work together to effect change.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources: "Illinois permanently expands access to telehealth" HB 3308, full text Why payment parity is so vital! Episode 205: [Getting Paid] Fight the Cheapening of Telehealth Episode 206: [Getting Paid] Navigating Teletherapy Insurance Billing in a Post-COVID Future, with Barbara Griswold LMFT CE training, Telehealth Coverage and Billing in a Post-COVID Future with Barbara Griswold, LMFT CE training, "Cross-Border Practice in the Age of Telehealth: Interstate and International Mental Health Practice, 2021 Edition" FREE worksheet "Legality and Permissibility to Practice Across Jurisdictions in the United States for Mental Health Clinicians" Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) Teletherapy Practice Rules by State For Counselors, MFTs, Psychologists, and Clinical Social Workers 

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about therapist directories and HIPAA.  We discuss the benefits of directories, improving access to care, measuring success, tracking referrals in directories, facilitating connections through directories themselves, directories collecting + storing PHI, business associate agreements (BAAs), who has to comply with HIPAA, misconceptions about PHI, what constitutes PHI, scope of responsibility, and workarounds to safeguard PHI on directory sites.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources: PCT video help tutorial on disabling the email me Psychology Today feature Group Practice Office Hours direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC Person Centered Tech's second annual Thriving & Making Comfort Conference  A virtual, pay-what-you-can, on-demand conference focused on practice-care needs as we transition from a peak pandemic practice context, including a discussion of how to utilize directories in a HIPAA-friendly way.

While all mental health practitioners are responsible for HIPAA compliance, it's a topic that provokes a lot of anxiety, overwhelm, and aversion. Rather than avoid your compliance duties, dig in with us on this very special episode with our guests Roy Huggins and Liathana Dalton from Person Centered Tech. In this episode, you'll hear us talk about encryption, device hardening, and steps you can take to be more HIPAA informed and compliant. Here's how you can connect with Roy & Liath from Person-Centered Tech.  https://personcenteredtech.com/about/ (https://personcenteredtech.com/about/)  website: https://personcenteredtech.com/ (https://personcenteredtech.com/) podcast, Group Practice Tech: https://personcenteredtech.com/group-hipaa/podcast/ (https://personcenteredtech.com/group-hipaa/podcast/)  Social media: FB & IG @personcenteredtech  Want to connect with the Protecting Your Practice Co-Hosts? Find us at: protectingyourpractice.com FB: @protectingyourpractice IG: @protectingyourpractice To work with Dan if you're a mental health practitioner in Maryland, go to: https://danielmayerlaw.com/ (https://danielmayerlaw.com/) To consult with Melissa about your private practice and group practice questions, go to: intentionalpractice.net

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about some positive developments we've seen in state rules about cross-jurisdictional practice.  We discuss grace periods; not making assumptions; the quickly changing rules of cross-state practice; incentives to make sure clinicians are practicing legally; insurance repercussions; practice wide procedures and protocols; specific state examples; improving access to care; time limits to provisions; privacy standards; our upcoming training on this topic; our free 50 state practice rules tool; and we make some predictions for the future of cross-state practice. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources: 2 CE hour training, live and recorded, Cross-Border Practice in the Age of Telehealth: Interstate and International Mental Health Practice, 2021 Edition (Live on 7/23/21) PCT's 50-State Teletherapy Practice Rules Survey for Counselors, MFTs, Psychologists, and Clinical Social Workers PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs, including PCT's Teletherapy Certified Practice Program Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) Person Centered Tech's second annual Thriving & Making Comfort Conference a virtual, pay-what-you-can, on-demand conference focused on practice-care needs as we transition from a peak pandemic practice context, with a keynote from insurance expert Barbara Griswold, LMFT, on Telehealth Coding and Billing in a Post-COVID Future.    

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about what's new with cross-state practice provisions as states end their public health emergencies.  We discuss temporary cross-state practice provisions during covid, pandemic mobility, ending temporary provisions, the future of workplace culture, continuity of care, what it means when public health emergencies end, what group practice owners can do to protect their practice, informing clients, keeping track of cross-jurisdictional practice, and expanding access to care.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources: 2 CE hour training, live and recorded, Cross-Border Practice in the Age of Telehealth: Interstate and International Mental Health Practice, 2021 Edition (Live on 7/23/21) PCT's 50-State Teletherapy Practice Rules Survey for Counselors, MFTs, Psychologists, and Clinical Social Workers PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs, including PCT's Teletherapy Certified Practice Program Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) Person Centered Tech's second annual Thriving & Making Comfort Conference a virtual, pay-what-you-can, on-demand conference focused on practice-care needs as we transition from a peak pandemic practice context, with a keynote from insurance expert Barbara Griswold, LMFT, on Telehealth Coding and Billing in a Post-COVID Future.    

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about teletherapy certification.  We discuss getting paid for teletherapy, what state licensing boards say about teletherapy certification or training, certification vs competence, teletherapy policies and procedure manuals, insurance company trends, training and competence as values of the therapy profession, why we have a teletherapy certification program, the future of teletherapy certification, telehealth as a medium, separating medium from modality, how words have power, and communicating competence.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes!   For more, visit our website. Resources: PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs, including PCT's Teletherapy Certified Practice Program   PCT Article: "To Practice Telemental Health, Am I Required to Receive Training?"   Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and teletherapy & HIPAA attorney Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) Person Centered Tech's second annual Thriving & Making Comfort Conference  A virtual, pay-what-you-can, live (and recorded!) conference focused on practice-care needs as we transition to a peak pandemic practice context, with a keynote from insurance expert Barbara Griswold, LMFT, on Telehealth Coding and Billing in a Post-COVID Future.    

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking with Barbara Griswold of Navigating the Insurance Maze about teletherapy billing in the post-COVID future.  We discuss what's new with insurance billing, getting services covered during the pandemic, the struggle with getting up to date info on client benefits, talking to clients about losing telehealth coverage, single case agreements, resisting the bureaucratic parts of the job, managing expectations, making assumptions, how telehealth coverage may change, third party platforms, parity, advocating at the state level, telehealth coverage and billing, coding, audits, effective progress notes, and our 2nd annual Thriving & Making Comfort Conference.   Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Person Centered Tech's second annual Thriving & Making Comfort Conference A virtual, pay-what-you-can, live (and recorded!) conference focused on practice-care needs as we transition to a peak pandemic practice context, with a keynote from insurance expert Barbara Griswold, LMFT, on Telehealth Coding and Billing in a Post-COVID Future.     Essential, timely and topical articles from Barbara at Navigating the Insurance Maze Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)    PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're ready to fight against the cheapening of telehealth, and we're asking you to join us.   We discuss companies like Talkspace and BetterHelp, insurance providers, why group practice owners are concerned about these platforms, the shortage of therapists, making therapy cheap, impacts to quality of care, companies trying to scale mental health treatment, constructive ways to take action, reasons why therapists choose to work with these platforms, the need for accessible clinically effective teletherapy, celebrity spokespeople, business models vs evidence-based practice, how group practices can compete, telehealth parity, and advocating as a group.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources:  "New Senate Bill Seeks To Continue COVID-19 Telehealth Coverage" from Healthcare IT News   "A new bill before Congress would make permanent several emergency telehealth measures put in place to expand access and coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency" "Providers face a magnetic pull toward in-person care, says ATA board chair" from Healthcare IT News "American Telemedicine Association Board Chair Dr. Joseph Kvedar called on clinicians, suppliers, payers and patients to play their part in fighting for long-term telehealth access." "House reps seek to permanently safeguard audio-only telehealth coverage" from Healthcare IT News "A bipartisan bill introduced this week would allow providers to offer audio-only telemedicine services to Medicare enrollees." "Texas Lawmakers OK Telehealth Expansion for Medicaid, Public Health Plans"  "The bill is one of dozens across the country – including several in Texas – that aim to expand telehealth access and coverage past the pandemic. A few states have chosen to extend emergency provisions for a while in hopes of seeing Congress set federal telehealth policy, but others are pushing ahead with their own laws, creating pockets of permanence around the country." Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we're talking about protecting your practice with Daniel Mayer and Melissa Wesner. We discuss the lack of legal resources for group practice owners, how Dan and Melissa started their podcast, what they don't teach you in grad school, the importance of knowing what you don't know, getting solid sources of information, spending money where it's important, asking for help when you don't understand something, knowing yourself, going from therapist to CEO, private practice mindset, protecting your clients and peace of mind when you protect your practice, delegating risk management, the responsibility of compliance, returning after covid, technological progress, masking + vaccination status, and the future of telehealth.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Roy and Liath are joined by the hosts of the Protecting Your Practice podcast, group practice owner Melissa Wessner, LCPC LCMHC, and mental health attorney Daniel Mayer, Esquire, to discuss risk management, the things you didn't learn in grad school, and how to know what you don't know about protecting your practice. After working in the same Greater Baltimore community for some time, Dan, an attorney, and Melissa, a counselor, decided to join forces in order to offer mental health providers the information they need to protect their practices.  Coming from two different backgrounds, Dan and Melissa, bring a wealth of knowledge for listeners who want to learn all about the legal and clinical aspects of running a practice.  Protecting Your Practice Podcast   Social Media Accounts: FB & IG @protectingyourpractice Dan's Law Firm: Mayer Law Melissa's Consultation Practice: Intentional Practice   Group Practice Office Hours  (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs  (that also help you leverage your practice tech tools to optimize functionality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness!) Person Centered Tech's second annual Thriving & Making Comfort Conference:  a virtual, pay-what-you-can, conference focused on practice-care needs as we transition to a post-COVID future, with a keynote from insurance expert Barbara Griswold, LMFT, on Telehealth Coding and Billing in a Post-COVID Future.

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about the future of telemental health for group therapy practices. We discuss solidifying growth and looking toward the future, trying to find stability, making decisions that work for your specific practice, insurance coverage for telemental health, new federal legislation, phone sessions, tools and systems for functionality and security, the professional and public pressure for shifts in coverage, some positive signs we’re seeing, telehealth parity laws, the expansion of therapy apps like Talkspace and BetterHelp, cross-state practice, staff preferences for in-person vs telehealth, hybrid practice models, telehealth divisions in groups, and how to use office space going forward.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)  PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs     "Need for virtual mental health services skyrockets during COVID-19 pandemic" from Healthcare IT News "Providers learn valuable lessons that can help them deliver effective digital care in the future."  "Providers face a magnetic pull toward in-person care, says ATA board chair" from Healthcare IT News "American Telemedicine Association Board Chair Dr. Joseph Kvedar called on clinicians, suppliers, payers and patients to play their part in fighting for long-term telehealth access." "House reps seek to permanently safeguard audio-only telehealth coverage" from Healthcare IT News   "A bipartisan bill introduced this week would allow providers to offer audio-only telemedicine services to Medicare enrollees." "FCC Is Ready to Move Forward With Connected Care Pilot Program" by mHealth Intelligence  "The agency hopes to get the OK at its June commission meeting to post a second Report and Order on the program, which aims to boost telehealth adoption by funding broadband expansion projects." 

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about returning to the office post-Covid and whether or not you can require vaccines and masks.  We discuss the recently updated CDC guidelines, effectively communicating with clinicians and clients, the intensity of emotion related to vaccination status and masking, local regulations for healthcare clinics, managing pushback from clients, guidance from licensing boards, predicating care on vaccination status, reasonable alternative accommodations, requiring masks in waiting rooms, managing risk, uniformly applying rules, access to care, and citing sources.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources APA article: "COVID-19: When is it OK to provide more in-person services?"  Example Referenced from Oregon Board of Psychology Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)   PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs (that also help you leverage your practice tech tools to optimize functionality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness!)     PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs    APA: "Practice Resources In Response to COVID-19"

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about choosing an EHR system and the information blocking (“Open Notes”) rule.  We discuss how information blocking and HIPAA are different, which systems are covered by the new rule, how to know if switching systems makes sense, what the new rule enforces and what it doesn’t, coming cultural shifts in the way we use healthcare services, the different types of EHRs, training + supporting your team’s documentation, worldwide shifts in healthcare privacy, the nuances of psychotherapy notes vs. other healthcare notes, the future of personal health records, charging for releasing records, getting info from your current practice management system on their plans for the future, implications for prescribers, and our free CE event on this topic where you can learn more.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources CE Training: The “Open Notes” Rule and Your EHR Choice: Legal Compliance and Client Safety Now and in The Future with Eric Ström JD PhD LMHC; Rob Reinhardt, LCHMCS, M.Ed., NCC; and Roy Huggins, LPC NCC CE Training: How We Need to Give Clients Access to Their Records, Now and in the Future with Eric Ström, JD PhD LMHC, and Roy Huggins, LPC NCC Free Presentation: Federal “Open Notes Rule” explained by Eric Ström, JD PhD LMHC, and Roy Huggins, LPC NCC Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT consulting team and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)   PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs (that also help you leverage your practice tech tools to optimize functionality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness!)  

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, Liath is joined by Liz Knutsen, one of our PCT Consultants, to talk about why we care about HIPAA security and risk management.  We discuss the sacredness of keeping information private; we compare security practices to inoculation; the likelihood and impact of a breach; having a “why” that keeps us going; breaking down the compliance process into bite sized pieces; the guilt, anxiety, and vulnerability that come up when you’re not compliant; mindfulness during risk analysis; privacy regulations as human rights; the benefits of becoming HIPAA secure; being proactive vs reactive; the comfort and vulnerability of technology; client success stories; and some of the pain points of HIPAA security. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs Risk Analysis & Risk Mitigation Planning done *for* you    Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)      

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, Liath is joined once again by Evan Dumas, a consulting team member at PCT, to chat about burnout. We discuss how the pandemic has accelerated burnout, myths about burnout, systemic burnout,  creating a culture of well-being for your team as care providers, other-serving vs self-serving, practical ways to address burnout, vulnerability, creating collaborative solutions with your team, and leveraging tech to address burnout. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Self-Care Track from PCT's Thriving and Making Comfort Conference (a pay-what-you-want on-demand event) includes "How to Survive Burnout" presentation and "Navigating Collective Trauma as a Mental Health Professional" presentation Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)      PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, Liath talks with Evan Dumas, one of our consulting team members at PCT, about risk analysis. We discuss HIPAA security risk analysis, the practical utility of risk analysis, taking the judgment out of risk analysis, taking the fear out of HIPAA, the pandemic increasing feelings of vulnerability from a security perspective, reducing anxiety and overwhelm, how risk analysis can be empowering, in practice risk and compliance risk, preparedness, penguin metaphors, work/life boundaries, risk analysis as supporting wellness, ways to get started with this process, and Evan walks us through a sneak peek into a risk analysis with PCT.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Risk Analysis & Risk Mitigation Planning done *for* you    PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) 

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, Liath talks with Evan Dumas, one of the consulting team members at PCT, about utilizing the cloud in HIPAA appropriate and functionally impactful ways to reduce risk in group practice.  We discuss local storage, cloud storage and maintaining availability of PHI, why you can trust cloud services and other third parties, the practical benefits of cloud storage over local storage, how using cloud services can reduce risk, digitizing PHI, backups + contingency plans, operational continuity, and Evan demystifies what the cloud really is.   Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources 4 Recipes for HIPAA-Secure, Practice-Efficient Service Selection Risk Analysis & Risk Mitigation Planning done *for* you Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)      PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, Liath talks with Evan Dumas, one of the consulting team members at PCT, about establishing a more positive relationship with tech as a practice tool.  We discuss developing comfort with technology, sitting with tech discomfort, where tech discomfort comes from, how tech can meet functionality needs while not being a security problem, approaching technology from a place of curiosity, providing a clear and supportive structure where questions are encouraged, ways to foster a safe space for questions, and Evan busts some myths about being a tech comfortable person. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources PCT's Staff Training Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about bringing in outside helpers to your group practice.  We discuss different types of outside help you can get (biller, VA, intake coordinator, etc.), Business Associate Agreements, establishing boundaries, service level agreements, access credentials, device security, scenarios where this agreement could come in handy, and we go through our own service level agreement form section by section to demonstrate what you could cover.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about clients’ rights of access to records. We discuss catching up to rights of access norms as mental health clinicians, mainstream awareness of clients’ rights, GDPR (European privacy law), privacy as a human right,  psychotherapy notes/process notes, how things vary state to state, your right to withhold records, records in couples and family therapy cases, implications for the therapeutic alliance, and our upcoming live training and workshop with Eric Strom on this topic. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources PCT CE Presentation + Practical Application Workshop: How We Need to Give Clients Access to Their Records, Now and in the Future  Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about choosing services that are holistically beneficial for group practice + support HIPAA compliance.  We discuss facilitating and supporting HIPAA compliance, selecting tech that meets the needs of you + your team, how having systems that meet the needs of your practice can support HIPAA compliance, security circles, Business Associate Agreements, device management, choosing services based on your priorities, and we share group practice tech ‘recipes’ so you can mix and match the services you need.   Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources PCT Article: 4 Recipes for HIPAA-Secure, Practice-Efficient Service Selection Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs  

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about new record-keeping regulations that will be impactful for group practice owners. We discuss client rights of access to records, mental health privacy/confidentiality vs medical privacy/confidentiality, contexts for writing notes, open notes, ONC certified EHRs, information blocking, how to think about records going forward, the future of practice management systems, examples of what having open notes might look like, and our upcoming (Feb 12th) CE event on this very topic. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources FREE live CE event: Vital Group Practice Update on Upcoming HIPAA Changes, Open Notes, and Recent HIPAA Enforcement, 2021 Edition  Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) Staff HIPAA & Teletherapy Training

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking with Maureen Werrbach from The Group Practice Exchange about expanding to meet the increased need for mental health services right now.  We discuss the increase in demand for help during COVID-19, clinicians starting their own solo practice, what sets your practice apart, defining and building practice culture, supervision, building your therapist base, aligning with your business goals, rockstar vs. superstar employees, compensation structures, breakeven analyses, community engagement, making decisions based on your mission and values, and COVID-19 silver linings.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources The Group Practice Exchange Group Practice Owner's Summit Remote Workplace HIPAA Security Module (document pack + training)   Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) Staff HIPAA & Teletherapy Training

Hey Group Practice listeners! New podcast episode out today! In this episode, I'm talking with Roy + Liath from Person Centered Tech all about COVID related HIPAA concerns. In this episode we cover: what will trigger an audit changes to documentation rules in April COVID/telehealth HIPAA vulnerabilities BYOD vulnerabilities This episode is sponsored by TherapyNotes. TherapyNotes is an EHR software that helps behavioral health professionals manage their practice with confidence and efficiency. I use TherapyNotes in my own group practice and love its amazing support team, billing features, and scheduling capabilities. It serves us well as a large group practice owner. Do you ever wish for a financial therapist who could relieve you from the last few months' bookkeeping, talk you off the edge when you're running into issues with Quickbooks, or help you work through a profit plan for growth? GreenOak Accounting does just that! GreenOak Accounting is an accounting firm that specializes in working with group practices. Their value goes WAY beyond bookkeeping; they can help you get on track for financial success. Schedule a free consultation by going to http://greenoakaccounting.com/tgpe

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about how to manage remote offices in your group practice in a way that's HIPAA-friendly.  We discuss why we’re talking about remote offices again, being proactive vs. being reactive, developing up a standardized process for setting up a remote office, registering remote offices, accountability, team culture, boundaries, restricted areas, phishing scams, managing sensitive data at home, planning for the long term and the short term, firewalls, and our new Remote Workplace HIPAA Security Module, which makes all of this easy peasy.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Remote Workplace HIPAA Security Module (document pack + training) Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) Staff HIPAA & Teletherapy Training

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about the information blocking rule that will go into effect on April 5, 2021.  We discuss how the rule applies to clinicians, the open notes rule (aka information blocking), psychotherapy notes, practice management systems, certified EHR systems, switching systems, client’s rights of access, harm exceptions, buffer time, cost-benefit analysis, being proactive vs. reactive, and an excellent analogy courtesy of a friend of the pod, Eric Strom.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) -- with special celebratory launch offer. Free presentation: Federal “Open Notes Rule”, Active Next Week, Explained by Eric Ström, JD PhD LMHC and Roy Huggins, LPC NCC Group Practice Tech Podcast: Episode 130: [Practice Management] Implications of the Federal "Open Notes" Rule  PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about wassails and holiday carols. Kidding! We’re talking about how to manage your team remotely.  We discuss managing standard of care in different environments, key components to have in place in environments where there’s client info, home and mobile offices, restricted areas and escort-only areas, enforcing privacy at home, locking up devices, ethical standard vs HIPAA standard, double lock rules, risk management, full disk encryption, shredding documents, Bring Your Own Device policies, secure connections, WiFi guidelines, VPNs, viruses and phishing attacks, how to spot phishing scams, and security reminders.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) -- with special celebratory launch offer. On-demand training: Teletherapy From the Home or Mobile Office: HIPAA, Ethical, and Standard of Care Issues (1 CE credit hour, legal-ethical) from PCT's Staff HIPAA Trainings PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs    PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs   

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about recording teletherapy sessions.  We discuss whether clients can record on their end, keeping recordings secure, adding recordings to client files, consents to have in place, informed consent for recording, recording in-person vs. recording teletherapy, supervision via teletherapy, screen capture software, documentation, the availability standard and destroying recordings, Google Workspace, storage on a device vs in the cloud, device security, and do’s and don’ts for recording sessions.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) - with special celebratory launch offer. PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs    PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking with Dr. Tara Sanderson about supervision and leadership in a group practice context.  We discuss reasons to become a supervisor, supervision as a business model, skills to equip interns with, developing ethical critical thinkers, using values to guide decision making, the clinician side vs. the business owner side, the three hats of practice ownership (boss hat, clinician hat, and employee hat), using the hats to make decisions, specific resources that Tara has found useful, note writing, Google sites, Google Workspace, and planning enough time for supervision. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) -- with special celebratory launch offer. PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs (including contingency planning policy, worksheets and example plans)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about contingency planning.  We discuss how 2020 is the poster year for contingency planning, short term vs long term plans, HIPAA standards, risk management, backups, performative HIPAA compliance, emergency mode operation plans, business continuity, being proactive vs. reactive, learning things the hard way (2020!), criticality analysis, risk analysis, and normal operations vs contingency plans for emergencies. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) -- with special celebratory launch offer. PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs (including contingency planning policy, worksheets and example plans) PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about managing and leveraging online forms in your group practice.  We discuss form functionality, online forms for telehealth, ease of use + convenience, form security, HIPAA identifiers, when PHI becomes your responsibility, Google Forms, what to ask in contact forms, what kind of information can go on secure forms, specific software options to use, and as always, security, optimization, and privacy.   Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) -- with special celebratory launch offer. PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about constructive things that you can do to positively impact the future, especially in terms of access to behavioral health care.  We discuss why we decided to record this week, the increased need for therapy services right now, advocating with insurance companies for telehealth, clarity and parity around telehealth payment, toxic positivity, legislative advocacy, direct to client care, getting the attention of your representatives, and group practice office hours. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources H.R.7663 - Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act of 2020 Help Protect Telehealth Access for Our Seniors - Urge your Representatives to Cosponsor H.R. 7663! Episode 126: [The Teletherapy Lawyer] How Are We Going to Get Teletherapy Payment Parity After COVID? Group Practice Office Hours (direct support and consultation service from PCT and Eric Strom, JD PhD LMHC) (with special celebratory launch offer)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about the upcoming federal Open Notes Rule, which goes into effect on November 2, 2020.  We discuss who needs to know about this new rule, the short term and long term effects of this rule, the electronic health records initiative, quality and coordination of care, the 21st Century Cures Act (and how it is not HIPAA), information blocking, opennotes.org, exceptions to the rule, certified EHR systems, rights of access, the difference between psychotherapy notes and progress notes, and our upcoming webinar with Eric Strom on this topic.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Free presentation: Federal “Open Notes Rule”, Active Next Week, Explained by Eric Ström, JD PhD LMHC and Roy Huggins, LPC NCC New PCT Support Service for Group Practice Leaders: Group Practice Office Hours Consultation Service (with Eric Strom too!) -- special introductory offer.

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about why internet phone, or VoIP (which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol), is such a useful tool to have in your toolbox. We discuss client communication between sessions, the circle of control of the practice over personal devices, keeping client data discoverable to the practice, board complaints, separating personal systems from clinical systems, preventing liability, business associate agreements, specific VoIP options that we recommend (and why!), requests for non-secure communications, why VoIP is particularly helpful for remote teams, and our upcoming CE course on working from home.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources:  Teletherapy From the Home or Mobile Office: HIPAA, Ethical, and Standard of Care Issues PCT CE Training (live and recorded, 1 legal-ethical CE credit hour) PCT's Group Practice HIPAA Security Programs PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs  

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In our latest episode, we’re talking about the increasing demand for teletherapy and hiring clinicians for teletherapy only in your group practice.  We discuss how to increase capacity to meet growing client need, hybrid providers, the pros and cons of teletherapy only providers, office space concerns, insurance coverage for telehealth, culture change for your providers, developing workplace culture remotely, using supervision to expand your provider base, the future of insurance reimbursement for teletherapy, payment parity, contingency plans, ethical and legal standards of care, what to think about when hiring right now, and some tools we recommend.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources:  Teletherapy From the Home or Mobile Office: HIPAA, Ethical, and Standard of Care Issues PCT CE Training (live and recorded, 1 legal-ethical CE credit hour) PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking to Dr. Jeremy Sharp from The Testing Psychologist about remote assessments.  We chat with Jeremy about the background of tele-assessment, the efficacy of tele-assessment, how to re-norm instruments for tele-assessment, equivalency studies, proctors, at-home testing, remote/in-office hybrid models, AI based assessments, best practices, insurance coverage for tele-assessments, navigating the technology, and our upcoming webinar with Jeremy on this topic.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources:  PCT's CE Training with Dr. Jeremy Sharp (live and on-demand): Tele-Assessment: The Research & Practice of Remote Testing The Testing Psychologist PCT's Group Practice Teletherapy Programs

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking to Eric Strom, JD, PhD, LMHC, about telehealth payment parity laws and how they have changed in the wake of COVID-19.  We chat with Eric about what payment parity means, shady shenanigans by insurance companies, loopholes, variations state by state, advocacy, specific ways to get involved in advocacy, and removing barriers to care. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources:  Eric Strom, JD, PhD, LMHC, at Strom Consulting PCT CE training: Teletherapy From the Home or Mobile Office: HIPAA, Ethical, and Standard of Care Issues course (live presentation on 10/30/2020!)  Person Centered Tech's Group Practice Teletherapy Program  

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about how to manage the security of information that your practice is responsible for when you no longer have physical control over the space in which sessions are taking place. We discuss office security policies, how to do remote work in a HIPAA compliant way, restricted spaces vs public spaces, securing equipment in a home office, devices + internet connections, standard of care for effective teletherapy sessions, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, devices being compromised, digital hygiene, technical solutions vs behavioral solutions, leveraging your existing resources, and some future training opportunities from PCT that can help you navigate this topic.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources:  Teletherapy From the Home or Mobile Office: HIPAA, Ethical, and Standard of Care Issues course Person Centered Tech's Group Practice Staff HIPAA Training Person Centered Tech's HIPAA Security Program (includes Policies & Procedures and BYOD resources)

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about hackers + we have a spooky story for you!  We discuss how scams are getting increasingly sophisticated, social engineering, preying on a lack of knowledge, security reminders, phishing + phone scams, how to be aware of social engineering scams, password strength, and meme-ing security reminders.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Security Reminder Resources:  TherapyNotes video "How to Protect Your Electronic Records Against Phishing" Last Week Tonight with John Oliver "Edward Snowden on Passwords: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)" Person Centered Tech's Group Practice Staff HIPAA Training  Person Centered Tech's HIPAA Security Program

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about managing HIPAA compliance with employees vs. independent contractors.  We discuss Business Associate Agreements, organizing things for HIPAA compliance,  the IRS 20 factor test vs the ABC threshold, risk analysis, practice management systems, mail cubbies, behavioral controls vs. technical controls, technical measure solutions, and scope of responsibility.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Structuring Your Group Practice for Success- Considerations for Contractors VS Employees: A free webinar from PCT, with the marvelous Maureen Werrbach of the Group Practice Exchange Group Practice HIPAA Security Compliance programs (for both the contractor and employee model) from Person Centered Tech “1099 or Employee?" A free informational resource from the Group Practice Exchange

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about onboarding new clinicians to your group practice quickly, easily, and most importantly, correctly.  We discuss lists, policy + procedure manuals, employee manuals, automation, infrastructure to put in place so you can automate successfully, BYOD, software that is helpful in onboarding, documentation, onboarding virtually, letting your practice’s personality and values influence onboarding, and of course, HIPAA.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Role-based Staff HIPAA trainings by Person Centered Tech Group practice programs with Person Centered Tech:  Includes Workforce Manual, role-based HIPAA training (CE for clinical staff,) training assigning, reminding and tracking, Bring Your Own Device Policy, BYOD registration form, step-by-step device-specific tutorials for configuring required technical security measures, and much, much more! Group Practice Teletherapy Program and a la carte components that include Teletherapy Policy & Procedure Manual and 4 CE credit hour Clinical Staff Teletherapy training

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about risk analysis and how it fits into the compliance process, especially as group practices.  We discuss the what makes up risk analysis, what the purpose of it is, how it fits into the compliance HIPAA compliance picture, what complicates risk analysis, how to ensure your risk analysis is thorough and accurate, and how we manage risk analysis with groups. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources:  Group practice programs with Person Centered Tech; include the PCT Risk Analysis Tool, and the comprehensive program includes PCT performing the risk analysis for your practice!

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking with Barbara Griswold of Navigating the Insurance Maze about billing for teletherapy during COVID-19. Barbara has done hundreds of presentations around getting paid by insurance and navigating insurance, and is a fantastic resource on insurance in group practice.  We discuss the changes COVID-19 brought to billing for telehealth, single case agreements, calling to verify benefits vs. checking online, not making assumptions, timeframes for credentialing during COVID-19, ‘selling’ your practice to insurance panels, training requirements for telehealth, keeping track of when telehealth coverage expires, where to find updated information, CPT codes including place of service codes and modifiers, office locations + home offices, and negotiating contracts.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Person Centered Tech Training (live and recorded): Telehealth Billing in the Age of COVID-19 with Barbara Griswold, LMFT of Navigating the Insurance Maze Barbara's Plan-by-plan Insurance Coverage of Telehealth in Response to COVID-19 Barbara's article "Thinking of Giving Up Your Office?  Read this First…" Barbara's list of 10 Telehealth Billing Myths  Have followup questions or want to schedule a consultation with Barbara? Click here. Group practice programs with Person Centered Tech

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about how to provide supervision via teletherapy during COVID-19.  We discuss how to exchange videos, whether supervisees can do teletherapy, board rules regarding supervision + teletherapy, best practices for recording teletherapy sessions, consent for recording, developing a process for recording, security for devices, where to store recordings, tech-assisted supervision, teletherapy sessions counting toward clinical hours, and how COVID-19 has changed the way we think about supervision.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources PCT's review of Dreamaker as a tech-assisted supervision tool PCT's group practice offerings PCT's group practice teletherapy program and role-based trainings 

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re giving you an update on some tech tools we recommend for group practices.  We discuss changes to popular video software (specifically Google Meet and VidHealth, having a backup telehealth plan in place, how the updates to video software can benefit your group practice, comparing features of major telehealth software options, security circles, using personal devices versus business devices, phone services (particularly iPlum), secure text messaging, and how these updates can potentially save your practice some money.  Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Person Centered Tech's Group Practice Programs Person Centered Tech's Product Reviews

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Group Practice Tech. This time, we’re talking with Dr. Keely Kolmes about setting up social media policies in group practice. In 2010, Dr. Kolmes wrote a social media policy that was widely adopted in the field, and now they're back with updates to make it more relevant for the internet in 2020. We discuss how Dr. Kolmes developed their policy, what a social media policy is and what it should cover, what’s new in the updated policy, how to adapt your policy to different ethical guidelines, personal virtual presence vs. professional virtual presence, concerns about searching for client information online, patients requesting that their records are kept offline, and more. Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Dr. Kolmes's 2020 Updated Private Practice Social Media Policy and Dr. Kolmes's Annotated Private Practice Social Media Policy 15% discount code = Huggins (valid through end of September 2020) Dr. Kolmes's original Social Media Policy Social Media and Website Ethics CE training from Person Centered Tech Group practice programs with Person Centered Tech

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about different chat services you can use in your group practice both for logistical reasons and to promote team cohesion.  We discuss different software options, what to keep in mind HIPAA wise, chat options for discussing client information, using a VOIP service for messaging in your team, and the difference between messaging clients and messaging your team. Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources "HIPAA-propriateness" vendor/product reviews from Person Centered Tech

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about teletherapy again, but with a twist: how to make teletherapy more comfortable, both for the clinician and for the client. When your clients and your clinicians are comfortable with teletherapy, that will directly translate to effectiveness and satisfaction for both parties.  We discuss teletherapy fatigue, ways to resource + equip your team, practical ways to make things easier on your clinicians, moving past the bare minimum to optimizing things, tech comfort + retention, how creating a comfortable environment for your clinicians translates into money for your practice, how to talk to clients about technology, tech recommendations, how to figure out what to invest in, and more.  Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Roy's presentation "Reducing Fatigue and Improving Satisfaction (Yours and the Client’s) In Teletherapy" from PCT's (recorded) pay-what-you-can on-demand conference Thriving and Making Comfort Conference  PCT's Group Practice Telemental Health Program  2 CE hour course "Video Presentation Skills in Telemental Health, Both Basic and Intermediate  free video "Avoiding Teletherapy Strains and Fatigue"

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking about the big news: as of July 1, 2020, PSYPACT (Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact) is now live! PSYPACT is now taking applications to get the APIT - Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology. PSYPACT is currently enacted in 13 states, but 16 other states have introduced legislation to join, so it could soon be in as many as 31 states.  We discuss the different type of approvals you can apply for with PSYPACT, PSYPACT in the context of COVID, national-level teletherapy, the impact on other types of mental health professionals,  where to find state-specific PSYPACT information, the complexities of inter-jurisdictional practice, licensure standards vs. continuity and access to care, steps other mental health professionals can take to support legislation like this,  and more.  Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources PCT article: PSYPACT: True Interstate Psychology Starts Today! PCT's 50-State Emergency Teletherapy Practice Rules Survey *Updated to include PSYPACT!*  PCT's Group Practice Telemental Health Program

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking with Eric Strom, owner of Strom Consulting. We talk with Eric about marketing a group practice and about cross-jurisdictional practice. We discuss ways to conceptualize marketing for a group therapy practice, marketing under HIPAA, ways to make your email marketing HIPAA friendly, how having a well thought out email security plan makes your clients feel cared for + secure, how PHI is defined, the need to treat both current client and prospective client info securely, tech notes to keep in mind while marketing, practicing telehealth in multiple states, how different state regulations interact, the importance of doing due diligence, and more.  Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Strom Consulting PCT's 50-State Emergency Teletherapy Practice Rules Survey Virtual (Recorded + On-Demand) Thriving and Making Comfort Conference Group Practice Telemental Health Program

  Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech.   This time, we’re talking with Joe Bavonese, owner of Uncommon Practices. We talk with Joe about finding next steps for marketing during COVID.    We’re going deep into group practice marketing strategies this week and talking with Joe all about how he’s adapted his marketing strategy during COVID times.    We discuss shifting your practice to teletherapy, email marketing, community networking, google ads, facebook ads, and what got Joe through the major shift for his practice in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic; as well as tips for other group practice owners, and silver linings that come with the shift to teletherapy.    Stay tuned for future episodes!   For more, visit our website.   Resources Group Practice Success Uncommon Practices Virtual (Live + Recorded) Thriving and Making Comfort Conference Group Practice Telemental Health Program  

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re talking with Maureen Werrbach, owner of Urban Wellness Counseling and the founder of The Group Practice Exchange. We talk with Maureen about how she supports fellow group practice leaders, resources she provides and curates for them, and the hands-on and lived experience of being a group practice leader herself.  We’re going deep remote leadership this week and talking with Maureen about how she’s approaching leading from a distance.  We discuss maintaining team culture virtually, Google Meet, finding ways to thrive during the pandemic, coaching clinicians when pivoting gets hard, marketing for telehealth, becoming a continuing education provider, delegating, how she determined her 3 phases for reopening in-person sessions, and silver linings.  Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources Group Practice Exchange Membership Group Practice Exchange Facebook Group Group Practice Owners Summit Virtual (Live + Recorded) Thriving and Making Comfort Conference Group Practice Telemental Health Program

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. This time, we’re chatting about some of the most effective ways to build up new clients and get past clients to return for teletherapy. We have suggestions for what to put on your website and best practices for content to sell clients on teletherapy.  We also spend some time talking about how our attitudes toward teletherapy can go a long way toward shaping our clients’ thoughts about it.  We also discuss updating Psychology Today and other directory profiles, email marketing + HIPAA, and figuring out what terms to use on your website so people can search for you.  Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website.   Resources Our upcoming virtual (and recorded!) Thriving and Making Comfort Conference

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. First of all, we want you to know that Person Centered Tech acknowledges that therapy as a field is very white. As group practice leaders, there's both an opportunity and a responsibility to develop and spread anti-racist practices in our own businesses as well as our professions. We can foster diversity and inclusivity within our teams and create a safe and affirming space for black and indigenous people of color and people of color, and Black Lives Matter. This time, we’re discussing what's happened during this rapid and emerging time of transitioning to telehealth and the context of COVID-19. We also look toward what comes next and how we can grow and strengthen our practices, despite the challenges of the time period that we’re currently in.  We’re going deep on strategies to not just survive this time period, but to thrive during it. We also discuss the changing regulations for cross-state practice, the difference between offering online therapy and being a fully online therapy practice, PSYPACT, insurance reimbursement, and transitioning from emergency regulations back to normal practice.  Stay tuned for future episodes! For more, visit our website. Resources 50-State Emergency Teletherapy Practice Rules Survey for Counselors, MFTs, Psychologists, and Clinical Social Workers  Our upcoming virtual (and recorded!) Thriving and Making Comfort Conference

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. Today’s episode is a conversation with the Documentation Diva herself, Dr. Maelisa Hall. Maelisa is the brains behind QAPrep.com, where she shares her endless wisdom on all things documentation for therapy practices. She offers resources on EHRs, HIPAA, supervision, consultation, and time management on her website.  In today’s chat with Maelisa, we’re talking about making sure you get paid by completing your documentation properly in your practice. We discuss documentation (particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic), quality assurance, telehealth, and telehealth reimbursement. We also talk about barriers to completing notes (including stress and burnout), strategies you can use to avoid clinicians getting behind in notes, reviewing notes for quality assurance, ways to measure progress, audits vs. case reviews, what you should be documenting right now, and communicating policies to clients.  Above all, we look at how proper documentation helps you bring in the money for your practice, provide clinically effective care, and provide professional development for your staff.  Stay tuned for future episodes! Resources QA Prep Website  Visit us on our website!

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. On today’s episode, (our first interview!) we’re chatting with Beth Sertell, the owner of Holistic Consultation in Columbus, Ohio. We’ve been talking a lot about Telemental Health recently (if you missed it, check out episodes 105 + 106), so today we’re talking about what Telemental Health looks like in practice in the real world! Beth completed our Group Certified Practice Program for Telemental Health, and she’s a total rockstar. We chat with Beth to see how she implemented this program in her practice, the lessons she’s learned during the process, and intentional business ownership.  As we’ve mentioned before, Telemental Health is an Opportunity Zone, and we’re taking a look at the opportunities this can open up in a group practice. This episode is PACKED full of tips - if you’re curious about offering telemental health, bookmark this episode! Beth has so much wisdom to share, like the reasons she decided to go with telemental health, the considerations she took into account, the research she gathered, how she rolled out the program with her staff, the benefits of offering telemental health to the practice, how she has informed clients of this new offering, the transition to online sessions with clients, how this works with insurance, and the specific programs she uses to make this offering work.  As always, we look at how technology and telemental health, in particular, can help you expand your group practice, meet the needs of your clients, and help you run your business smoothly.  Stay tuned for future episodes! Visit us on our website!

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. Today’s episode is focused on Telemental Health. You’ve probably heard of the benefits of telemental health (if you haven’t, listen to episode 105!), but how do you actually go about implementing it in your practice?  Telemental Health is an Opportunity Zone - it can open up opportunities for therapy practices, especially group practices, but it is a bit more complicated than just picking a video conferencing software. Our focus this week is on creating a proactive and intentional telemental health program in our group practice. We discuss the basic needs of a telemental health program, the tools you’ll need to use, and steps to take to get a program up and running. Perhaps more importantly, we talk about the real key to a successful telemental health program - competence in whatever program you are going to use.  As always, we take a deep dive into how to incorporate technology into your therapy practice, while still paying careful attention to the legal and ethical requirements that therapists are bound by.  Stay tuned for future episodes! Visit us on: https://personcenteredtech.com/

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. Today’s episode is focused on Telemental Health. We’re trying to answer the big question: Is telemental health worth it?  Spoiler alert: We think it is absolutely worth it, especially for group practices. Telemental Health is an Opportunity Zone - it can open up opportunities for therapy practices, especially group practices. We will walk you through various considerations you should make when preparing a telemental health program for your practice. We talk about what telemental health is in the first place, reasons for choosing to offer it, outside the box things to consider, and preparing your practice to offer this, on both the clinician and client ends. As always, we’re talking about being proactive instead of reactive when it comes to technology and how you can take advantage of opportunities to grow your practice via telemental health.   Stay tuned for future episodes! Visit us on: https://personcenteredtech.com/

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech.  Today’s episode is all about recipes for true G Suite magic! How can you use G Suite’s most popular tools efficiently and effectively for your group practice?  We’ll talk about third party integration of CRM and marketing systems, synchronizing appointments from your record system with Google calendar, sharing schedules with your colleagues, and how to best use Google sheets. Last but not least we’ll tell you how powerful it can be for practices to use single sign-on and access control that G Suite offers.   As always, we question data security, HIPAA friendliness, and of course business associate agreements. Get ready for some true magic! Stay tuned for future episodes!  Visit us on: https://personcenteredtech.com/

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech.  This time, we’re discussing device management and device security using GSuite.  Why should we as group practice owners care about it? Where is the difference between managing private vs practice owned devices?  We talk about different GSuite settings for different organizational units, bring your own device policies, and the arguable importance of software updates. We conclude that we need to keep devices secure for good ethical reasons beyond just HIPAA compliance! Stay tuned for future episodes!  For more, visit our website.

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. Today we’re going to talk about G Suite again, this time about how to best implement it in your practice. We’re tackling security today, including encryption, the security of Gmail, and Business Association Agreements - and have you heard of G Suite’s confidential mode already?  Also, we’re giving a sneak peek at upcoming episodes on online therapy and device management.  Stay tuned for the next episodes!  Visit us on: https://personcenteredtech.com/

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In this episode, we discuss how you as a practice owner can benefit from using G Suite! Whether it’s for collaboration and communication with your team, scheduling appointments, or organizing client information - G Suite can help you be more productive and better organized.  Despite being stoked by all the benefits of the tool, we do not fail to discuss security. We also talk about how can you use G Suite in a way that provides data security and protection for your clients and practice. Stay tuned for the next episodes!  Visit us on: https://personcenteredtech.com/

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Roy Huggins, your co-hosts of Person Centered Tech. In this very first podcast episode we’re giving you a quick overview of how Person Centred Tech helps mental health group practice owners leverage tech to improve their practices.  We’re telling you what to expect from this podcast and give you an outlook on future episodes that will help you get the best out of your tech practices.  Stay tuned for the next episodes!  Visit us on: https://personcenteredtech.com/

Do you know what HIPAA even stands for? Or that it’s not “HIPPA”? No? You’re not alone! Join me and Roy Huggins, director of Person-Centered Tech, as we talk all about privacy, digital ethics, record-keeping, cell phones, personal computers, and how to stay out of trouble. Roy and I covered a lot of ground here – it’s definitely worth sticking ... Read More The post TTP #78: Roy Huggins – Digital Ethics and Security appeared first on The Testing Psychologist.

A conversation with Rob Reinhardt and Roy Huggins - hosts of the TherapyTech podcast and creators of Person-Centered Tech and Tame Your Practice - on the pearls and perils of using technology in counseling and what counselors are doing right (and wrong) when it comes to incorporating technology into our practice. For more on Rob and Roy, links from the conversation, and the APA citation for this episode visit TheThoughtfulCounselor.com.

Today Dr. Jessica Dolgan welcomes Roy Huggins and Liath Dalton from Person Centered Tech to Love Your Practice. Jessica takes a critical look at navigating the ethical and legal liability of a private practice as it pertains to the technology clinicians are using.

In this episode of the Practice of Therapy Podcast Gordon interviews Roy Huggins about tech, HIPAA, self-care and the business side of private practice.  Roy talks about his private practice journey and how he was able to use his business and technology background to start Person-Centered Tech.  Roy also talks about the ethics of using our technology and doing it in a way that protects clients and keeps their information secure. Gordon and Roy talk about the difference between being “HIPAA compliant” vs. “HIPAA secure”. They also discuss the importance of financial self-care in private practice and why it is important for clinicians to be prepared for the constant technology changes that come with running a private practice. Also making and charging enough to support yourself and keep your practice viable. Meet Roy Huggins Roy Huggins, LPC NCC, is a counselor in private practice who also directs Person-Centered Tech. Roy worked as a professional Web developer for 7 years before changing paths, and makes it his mission to grow clinicians' understanding of the Internet and other electronic communications mediums for the future of our practices and our professions. Roy is an adjunct instructor at the Portland State University Counseling program where he teaches Ethics, and is a member of the Zur Institute advisory board. He has acted as a subject matter expert on HIPAA, security and clinical use of technology for Counseling licensure boards and both state and national mental health professional organizations. He has co-authored or authored 2 book chapters, and he routinely consults with mental health colleagues on ethical and practical issues surrounding tech in clinical practice. He served for 5 years on the board of the Oregon Mental Health Counselors Association and then the Oregon Counseling Association as the Technology Committee Chair. He really likes this stuff! Visit the Practice of Therapy: http://practiceoftherapy.com for more show notes and links

Roy Huggins, LPC, NCC - Person Centered Tech Episode 12 is all about answering those questions that are holding us back and addressing the tech, security and ethic issues around online counseling. So many times I hear therapist talk about how they are thinking about having online therapy be a part of their practices – but are concerned about HIPPA issues, ethics, license, etc. So today, we go to one of the experts in the field: Roy Huggins of Person Centered Tech. He is one of the leading voices when it comes to advising psychotherapists on issues around online counseling. We talk about skype, HIPAA, ethics, license issues of doing counseling across state lines – we cover it all. This topic is so vast, we couldn't possible go into depth on every issue – but I think we answer most of the pressing questions. We also talk about the very nature of counseling online and how the field may be changing in the future. You never know – 5 or 10 years down the line, there Virtual Reality Office could be part of the discussion. It was a fascinating interview and I learned so much more. I'm sure this only going to bring up even more questions. Don't worry - Roy consults at a VERY reasonable rate on an ongoing basis to make sure you are in line with HIPAA and following your ethics. Be sure to listen until the very end, because Roy goes into how he consults and advises and discusses his different offerings. Be sure to look him up: www.personcenteredtech.com  And Roy has very generously offered a coupon for his services.  Just use code: OCPOD and you can receive 20% discount off any purchase, no matter what, and it never expires!