On HIPAA Cover Sheets, Confidential Markings and Client Security

Globalization and technological advances have an impact on the job market.

Globalization has allowed corporations to hire outsourcing firms which can satisfy
the formers human resource needs at a cheaper cost. These outsourcing firms are
usually located in countries which have inexpensive yet highly-skilled manpower.
Outsourcing firms will then become a bridge between these corporations and their
customers. They are to provide excellent customer service and ensure that these
customers stay with their respective corporations. Technological advancement
provides for communication necessities and bridged customers to these outsourced
professionals. This scenario ultimately resulted to a win-win scenario for
corporations, outsourcing firms and countries hosting these firms. The corporations
get to receive a highly-skilled workforce to satisfy their customers, the outsourcing
firms receive business, and host countries enjoy increased employment rate.
There is, however, a question as regards cultural differences. Bridging this
cultural divide is imperative in order to ensure that customers are satisfied with the
service given to them. Workflows and communication rules are created in order to
ensure customer satisfaction. However, some outsourced professionals require more
than these two, due primarily to the nature of their job. Example of such outsourced
professionals is the outsourced legal professional. The outsourced legal
professionals client is the corporation itself: the law firm outsourcing its manpower.
Outsourced legal professionals are responsible for processing legal
documents pertaining to pre- trial, discovery, trial, and post-trial phases. As such,
each case can have thousands of documents, depending on the nature of the case.
Each document can have different nature, and each may be processed differently.
Also, depending on the rate of each phase, some documents should be processed in
an expedited manner. The sheer volume of the documents, as well as the rate by
which said documents must be processed, requires that an outsourced legal
professional be fast and precise to be able to satisfy the needs of his/her client law
firm
For outsourced legal professionals, differences in the legal system, as well as
the culture, require additional securities to be created. This will ensure that the
corporation, in this case a law firm, will prevent possible negative effects brought
about by the aforesaid differences. These securities are in the form of red flags. Law
firms usually use these red flags in the form of markings or cover sheets, and are
placed in conspicuous places in the legal document. A red flag will remind the
outsourced professional that the document is high-risk, and thus should be
processed carefully. It must be noted, however, that red flags are just additional
tools to assist the outsourced legal professional.

One of the primary uses of red flags is to bridge the cultural difference. For
example, Filipino culture gives little attention to medical records. Filipinos, as a
culture, generally do not care if their medical records are shown to others. The same
can be said of medical conditions, and Filipinos even consider questions about
medical conditions as a kind of emotional support. This culture makes it easier for
local companies and the Philippine government to gather medical documents or
legal documents pertaining to medical conditions. Americans, on the other hand,
generally put premium on privacy. Medical records are considered as private
information, and as such, authorizations are needed before other entities can legally
gather aforesaid documents. Furthermore, medical documents gathered are to be
treated with utmost confidentiality. Thus, when these documents are processed by
outsourced legal professionals, they are reminded of the confidentiality of these
medical documents by a HIPAA Cover Sheet, bearing a confidentiality blurb. While
these HIPAA cover sheets have legal bearing and are provided in consonance to the
law, they are a red flag for Filipino outsourced professionals. They are to process the
aforesaid documents with utmost care, ensure that all legal processes have been
followed, and the privacy of the patients is respected.
Another red flag is a confidential marking. Filipinos generally see entities on
the same side as virtually one and the same, without any distinction. This is
commonly known as the us-against-them mentality. Everyone is expected to give
all they have for the common purpose. A confidential marking aids in showing that
not all member of the team should be given access to said document. When an
outsourced paralegal handles a case which has multiple co-defendants that are
otherwise competitors outside the legal battle, a confidential marking can
determine which defendant can access the document. This scenario is highly-likely
when the case is about a billion-dollar injury or wrongful death litigation involving
various competitor companies as co-defendants. Even though these companies
have defenses common to each other, they also have their own trade secrets that
they want to protect. Examples of such documents that may have trade secrets in
them are internal memoranda, and research output of experts hired by the
company. These documents, depending on whether trade secrets actually exist, can
be given to co-defendants in drafting a common defense. In reading thousand-page
documents, the only way to determine whether said document is for a common
defense or for a particular defendants defense is through a confidential marking.
A confidential marking does not only heighten the alertness and focus of
outsourced paralegals handling said document, it also requires them to be careful
as to who else can know the existence of said document. A trade secret is of great
value to a corporation, since it can be what makes a company different from its
competitors, or because it provides a decisive advantage over competitors. Allowing
a competitor access to a trade secret, for any reason whatsoever, is a major
security breach and will be dealt with severely.

Client security must be protected at all cost. When a corporation outsource, it

places this security at risk, and thus outsourcing firms must do what it can to
prevent a security breach. Any security breach can put the client law firm at risk,
and thus, said law firm will most probably not be happy and will take its business
somewhere. These red flags minimize these risks, guide the outsourced legal
professional in assessing security risks, and ensure a profitable relationship
between the client law firm and the outsourcing firm.