Moving specimen collection out of a clinical setting and into a patient's home or office does not reduce the privacy standard a practice is responsible for. If anything, it raises the number of questions worth asking before choosing a mobile collection partner.
At minimum, physicians should confirm that every phlebotomist has completed formal HIPAA training, that the partner has a documented chain-of-custody process for specimens, and that any paperwork or scheduling information is handled through secure, not informal, channels.
Background checks matter here too. A mobile phlebotomist is entering a patient's home or private office, often unaccompanied. Practices should ask directly whether background checks are performed, how often they are refreshed, and whether the answer is documented rather than assumed.
These are reasonable questions to ask any vendor handling protected health information outside a traditional clinical setting, and a credible partner should be able to answer all of them without hesitation.