Emergency One Urgent Care Center offers Emergency Medical and Occupational Health Services in Kingston and Hyde Park, New York
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What does HIPPA mean?
HIPPA is the acronym for the
federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
HIPPA has various provisions which impact health care in a variety of
ways. One of these provisions concerns standards for privacy of health
information (the HIPPA Privacy Rule). The Department of Health and Human
Services published the final Privacy Rule on 12/28/2000. This
rule gives patients greater access to their own medical records and
more control over how their personal health information is used. The
rule also addresses the obligations of health care providers and health
plans to protect health information. By law, covered entities
had until 4/13/2003 to fully comply with all aspects of the ruling.
A key element of the ruling
is that a medical provider must have the patient’s consent before
any health information is released to a third provider. A physician
may use or disclose only that information which is needed to accomplish
the stated purpose. Patients have the federal right to access and
copy protected health care information and they have the right to “amend”
(not to change) a designated record. The right to confidential
communication and the right to an accounting of disclosures is also
given to patients by HIPPA. There is a legal exception to the HIPPA
provisions. Worker’s Compensation injury cases are not subject to
HIPPA. The employer is entitled to receive all information relevant
to the alleged work-related injury.
In addition to regulations
on the federal level, many states have begun to define privacy regulations.
New York Public Health Laws §17 and §18 define the requirements for
the appropriate handling of medical records and make any reported violation
of these standards a felony punishable by both monetary fines and imprisonment.
In our practice we do require
that all our patient’s sign consents for the disclosure of medical
information to their employer or any other third party. We would like
to emphasize to our business clients that they should limit their request
for information to that which is needed to accomplish a stated purpose.
In other words if an employee is sent for a post-offer job physical,
a simple “pass letter” should be expected. There may be elements
in a patient’s medical history which do not impact the ability to
perform a given job and it would not be in the best interest of a company
to have this information.
It is imperative that all recipients
of confidential medical information realize that they are going to be
held accountable to the manner in which they handle the information
they receive. If a company is believed to have violated an employee
‘s right to confidentiality in any way they may be subject to legal
action as defined above.
We as health care providers
will continue to monitor these confidentiality standards to ensure our
compliance with federal and state statutes. We urge our business associates
to review their respective policies with their corporate legal counsels
as well.
Dr. Carol Smith is the Medical Director for Occupational Health Services at Emergency One. For more information call: (845) 338-5600