Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CannAssist?
- Who are our clients?
- How does the system work?
- How does CannAssist maintain site security?
- How does CannAssist comply with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996?
- How does CannAssist benefit the California medical cannabis community?
- What is the timeframe for fully integrating CannAssist into a doctor’s office?
- Why not just wait for County ID cards?
What is CannAssist?
CannAssist is a powerful online resource that improves care for medical cannabis patients in the state of California. Specifically, CannAssist delivers online verification of medical cannabis patient status.
Who are our clients?
CannAssist works with the California medical cannabis community. Active participants comprise the following groups:
- California State Medical Board licensed doctors. Individual doctors, doctors offices and clinics who represent more than one doctor.
- Properly licensed cannabis providers located in the state of California, which observe federal HIPAA policy regarding the privacy and sanctity of patients Private Health Information.
- Qualified medical cannabis patients. (California residents only.)
How does the system work?
When a doctor issues approval of cannabis use for medicinal purposes, the patient’s name, the date of the office visit, the date the doctor has asked them to return for a visit and the patient's residential zip code are entered into the CannAssist system.
This entry generates the individual patient CannAssist ID number. A sticker with the number will be affixed by the doctor or their staff to give to the patient to take with them. The ID will be ready as soon as the doctor’s office activates the patient.
When a patient arrives at a new medical cannabis dispensing collective they can be looked up at a special url address, or if the MCDC has an account with CannAssist, the patient reception staff will log-in to access the CannAssist system. In both cases the next step is to input the patient’s Cannassist ID number. The system processes the query and only an exact match will result in a Confirmed Verification screen.
This screen is specific to the individual patient, shows the date they saw their doctor and the date their medical cannabis therapy should be re-evaluated by their doctor. Patients who have not visited their doctor to recieve a new medical cannabis approval. CannAssist ID numbers become invalid 12 months from the original doctor’s visit.
(Your physician determines the length of their approval. CannAssist has no part in this determination or any other form of medical advice.)
Dispensaries are required to check for valid California driver’s license, or ID to confirm patient identity.
How does CannAssist maintain site security?
Our strategy for site security is double-edged and is actively maintained. We employ best business practices in all aspects of our operation. For instance, we collect as little personal information as possible. This protects all of our clients so that even in an unforseen situation, if there were a security problem there would be no possibility of identity theft or medical identity theft.
Secondly we protect ourselves by using a web host that owns its own servers and guarantees 24×7 onsite physical security as well as the highest rated digital encryption service.
CannAssist.com is protected with a High-Assurance SSL certificate from GoDaddy.com. The following definition is provided by GoDaddy:
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a Web site and encrypts information that is sent to the server using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. SSL certificates – built around stringent, industry-leading authentication measures – allow Web site owners to secure all online transactions with up to 256-bit encryption. An SSL certificate on a Web site ensures that sensitive data is safe from prying eyes.
CannAssist maintains a strict privacy policy and will never share your information with any ad-ware or solicitation service, or any other sort of data mining company.
How does CannAssist comply with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996?
Cannassist.com was built to uphold, and when possible, exceed the minimum requirements outlined in HIPAA. Please also see the Legal Notices, and Terms of Use pages. Each applicant is checked to insure that they also have procedures in place that correspond to HIPAA guidelines. Including, but not limited to a documented Privacy Officer responsible for all incoming and outgoing patient health information.
More information is available on the U.S. Health and Human Services website.
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/
http://www.hhs.gov/policies/index.shtml
How does CannAssist benefit the California medical cannabis community?
CannAssist.com is a working solution for patients, doctors and cannabis providers. Using the service eliminates the potential verification delay patients can suffer if they happen to need medicine from a new location on a holiday, after hours or any other time that their doctor is unreachable by telephone.
CannAssist creates a standard where there was none before, and protects professionals by enforcing strict standards on participant eligibility, and by updating and developing the system according to HIPAA and other provisions as time goes on. Our process is patent pending.
- Doctors benefit by a decrease in the number of repetitious phone calls from patient services staff at dispensaries.
- Cannabis providers are able to serve patients efficiently and document their compliance with universal heath care policy.
- Office staff have less paperwork and need to keep fewer files.
- Patients have a way to legitimately identify themselves as a medical cannabis patient.
What is the timeframe for fully integrating CannAssist into a doctor’s office?
The length of time it takes to completely integrate CannAssist depends on your particular situation. Contact the staff at CannAssist.com to discuss the various factors involved.