HIPAA Blog

[ Thursday, April 08, 2004 ]

 

Early onset Alzheimers. I can't remember if I posted this before, but if you've ever wondered when you need to account for a disclosure, here's a good chart to look at.

You know that HIPAA gives individuals certain specific rights with regard to their own medical information, including the right to know where their PHI has been disclosed. Of course, given how many places PHI is disclosed in day-to-day medical care (from doctor to hospitals, from doctors to specialist and consulting doctors, to pharmacies, to payors, etc.), tracking all of those disclosures would cause the entire health care industry to grind to a halt. So, exceptions were granted for those types of disclosures that the individual ought to know about. You ought to know your doctor is going to give your information to the hospital when you're admitted, and that the hospital will tell your doctor your latest vital signs. So, disclosures for treatment, payment and healthcare operations are not required to be tracked for purposes of accounting for disclosures. Those are the disclosures you "ought to know about." Additionally, if you give your physician written permission (in the form of a HIPAA-compliant authorization), that's a disclosure you "ought to know about" too. So what's left? Well, check out the chart, and you'll see!

Jeff [4:01 PM]

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