HIPAA

A father found out his daughter was pregnant after receiving coupons from Target for cribs, baby clothes, etc. Being in high school, and unaware the daughter was pregnant, the father charged into Target demanding answers for why these coupons were being sent to his house. Target tracks your purchases and can determine if you’re pregnant, almost down to how many months you have left. Doctors can’t release information because we see it as a violation of the privacy, and a break in doctor-patient trust. Yet, the stores are not under the same regulations. This blog will discuss HIPAA, what it does and how it protects patient information.

First, HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It was passed by Congress in 1996 and is still in use today. To break down the title, Health Insurance Portability, provides workers and their families health insurance while they are in-between jobs. This means if a worker is laid off, they will still have health care while searching for a new job. The Accountability part of the title was to ensure that patients’ medical information was secure and confidential. Some other uses of the bill were to reduce health care fraud and abuse, as well as set standards for electronic billing and processing.

The Privacy part of HIPAA is often what the law is remembered for. It was established to set national guidelines that protect patient medical records. As Target has demonstrated, companies will use whatever data they can access to make profit. Medical professionals releasing personal information was seen as a betrayal of trust, going against the normal moral code. The Privacy Rule was to give data access to the patient only upon their request. When going to the doctors, patients are usually asked to sign multiple forms. These forms may include privacy forms, and authorization forms. The privacy form is given to patients to sign which informs them of the possibility their information may be shared with a third party. When signing this form patients say they understand the providers privacy practices. It’s hard for medical records to be sealed totally because patients often see multiple doctors, for multiple reasons. Records cannot be kept just by one doctor because if the patient saw another, they would need the previous records to make a sound diagnosis. In addition, if a patient arrives to the hospital, the hospital will need their records to know of any known allergies or health defects that may require special consideration. Healthcare is a very complex system; HIPAA makes to protect the patient when it can.

The second form is to inform patients that no one may receive their information without legal permission. These “people” are parents, children, friends, employers, etc. Patients are allowed to keep their health conditions, transactions, and insurance information completely confidential if, so, they choose. Discretion to release information to a third-party release on what the patient wants. Which is why there may often be another form, which patients sign that says they have been educated on the HIPAA rules and regulations. This may come in the form of a piece of paper handed to you and told to “read over” and sign. Within this form is the rule that the patient has the right to revoke authorization at any time. To limit the liability doctors’ offices will ask patients to sign these forms, however most patients don’t know what they’re signing.

HIPAA is treated by both patients and doctors as just another form to sign. It is often pushed to the side with little thought or care, but it is time to care and become informed. When going to the doctor’s office it might be fun while waiting to check out their HIPAA practices, and read through all the papers before you sign them. HIPAA is important, for better or for worse, and it’s going to be a long time before things change.