Tag Archive for: apa

The American Practice Advisor publication

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The Advisor® is Going Digital!

Beginning in January 2019, the Advisor® will transition to an all-digital format.

There are several benefits to this format:

  • faster delivery—no more waiting for the postal service;
  • links from the cover page to every article;
  • links to web sites that are referenced within articles;
  • flexibility in formatting of information to make it more useful;
  • links to print out just the Compliance Training materials, Compliance Notes or Trainer’s Plan pages;
  • the Advisor® will still be provided in a format that would allow you to print a hard copy, if desired.

Our production and mailing costs have gone up significantly in recent years, but moving to a digital format will allow us to keep the subscription price steady at $195 per year.  We will continue to offer support via phone and email to answer your compliance questions as part of the subscription service.

A link to the current Advisor® issue, Trainer’s Plan, Compliance Training materials and Compliance Notes will be delivered to current subscribers via email at the first of each month. To ensure delivery of monthly messages, please let us know if your email address changes. We will also monitor bounced emails from our end in an effort to promptly solve delivery issues.

We are constantly striving to provide the best service possible to our clients.  Contact our office if you have any questions or concerns regarding the transition.  You can reach us via email at info@eagleassociates.net, or via phone at (800) 777-2337.

Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Automated Calls to Cell Phones

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A recent change to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has practices wondering whether they can make automated appointment reminder phone calls, or automated collection calls.  Both have become common practice in recent years.

The TCPA, at 7 U.S.C. §227, states:

(b) Restrictions on use of automated telephone equipment

(1) It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside the United States if the recipient is within the United States–

(A) to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice–

(i) to any emergency telephone line;

(ii) to the telephone line of any guest room or patient room of a hospital, health care facility, elderly home, or similar establishment; or

(iii) to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call.

In essence, this means that you may not make automated calls to a cell phone without “prior express consent” from the customer (patient).  There is some debate as to what constitutes “prior express consent.”

For more information on establishing prior consent, and complying with TCPA requirements, refer to the article in the October 2015 issue of the American Practice Advisor.