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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Access to Records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Access to Records. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

HIPAA's Patient Access Rights

By Bruce Borkosky
Published by The Malvern Group
February 2014

This whitepaper is intended as a reference for patients, healthcare providers, and Privacy Officers. It is not legal advice and expresses the opinions of the author.

The goal of the paper is to provide a comprehensive yet understandable review of the many issues involving a patient's access to their PHI in the context of the patient’s rights, treatment considerations and interactions with other providers and the legal system.

It can be read in its entirety, or the reader may wish to use it as reference material, referring to individual sections as the need arises. Patients will be able to use this information to learn about their rights and become more assertive when providers refuse to release records.

Providers can use this information to release (or deny release of) records, thereby potentially avoiding malpractice lawsuits, disciplinary sanctions, or HIPAA complaints.

Administrators and Privacy Officers will be able to use this information to help maintain HIPAA compliance and to help resolve disputes among providers or between providers and patients.

Readers will also discover options for dealing with providers who are reluctant to release records.

The entire paper is here.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Are Forensic Evaluations “Health Care” and Are They Regulated by HIPAA?

By Bruce Borkosky,  Jon M. Pellett, and Mark S. Thomas
Psychological Injury and Law
June 2013

Abstract

Forensic mental health providers (FMHPs) typically do not release records to the examinee. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) federal regulations might change this position, given that they have created a basic right of access to health care records. This legislation has led to a disagreement regarding whether HIPAA regulates forensic evaluations. The primary argument (and the majority of scholarly citations) has been that such evaluations do not constitute “health care.” Specifically, in this position, the nature and purpose of forensic evaluations are not considered related to treatment (amelioration of psychopathology) of the patient. In addition, it asserts that HIPAA applies solely to treatment services; thus, forensic evaluations are inapplicable to HIPAA. We describe the evidence for and against this argument, the strengths and limitations of the evidence, and recent court decisions related to it. The weakest part of the “HIPAA does not regulate forensics” argument is that HIPAA has no exclusion criteria based on type of services. It only creates an inclusion criteria for providers; once “covered,” all services provided by that provider are thence forward “covered.” Authoritative evidence for patient access can be found in the HIPAA regulations themselves, the US Department of Health and Human Services’ commentaries, additional statements and disciplinary cases, the research literature, other agency opinion, and legal opinion. It appears that the evidence strongly suggests that, for those forensic mental health practitioners who are covered entities, HIPAA does apply to forensic evaluations. The implication is that FMHPs potentially face various federal, state, and civil sanctions for refusing to permit patient access to records.

The article is here.