Clinic Attendings, how many patients are on your unsigned records list? Did you know that each unsigned record represents a potential HIPAA security threat? Any unsigned record is vulnerable to access (intentionally or not) and potentially could have exam data edited or deleted from within the record. Additionally, a patient’s claim cannot be billed to insurance and records cannot be released to another caregiver until the record is signed off. Therefore, the best practice is to sign off on patient records for each patient encounter at the end of each clinic session, unless legitimate circumstances prevent this from occurring. Clinic policy dictates signoff in these circumstances within four business days. If you have any unsigned records beyond this timeframe, please respond promptly to notifications from the medical records department that are sent as e-mails or ToDos/Current User Action Items.