HIPAA Blog

[ Sunday, January 20, 2013 ]

 

Nugget 5: The Dead: Once you're dead for 50 years, you get on privacy.  That's right, you don't need to treat PHI of someone who died 50 years ago as private.  Also, under the original Privacy Rule, while a covered entity could disclose PHI to friends and family members "involved in the care" of the individual patient, to the extent of their involvement; however, once the individual died, the friends/family members were no longer "involved in the care" because there is no care being given, so only the "personal representative" (i.e., the executor or administrator of the estate) could get the information.  The Omnibus Rule has changed this, to allow covered entities to continue discussing PHI with friends/family members after death of the patient.  The same limitations apply (only information relating to that person's involvement in the patient's care), and there's no requirement that the covered entity provide the PHI if they don't want to.

Jeff [10:44 PM]

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