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Optometric Management, Sep 2002

RULE WEIGHS PRIVACY AND ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE

* The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently published the final Privacy Rule as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

Under the final rule, healthcare entities must obtain an individual's prior written authorization to use the individual's protected health information for marketing purposes, except for a face-to-face encounter or a communication involving a promotional gift of nominal value.

The rule prohibits selling patient lists for the marketing activities of a third party without the individual's written authorization. Treatment options and a doctor's own health-related products and services are not considered marketing.

While all healthcare providers must provide notice of their privacy practices to their patients, the final rule requires that providers make a good faith - not mandatory - effort to obtain a patient's written acknowledgement of the notice. HHS notes that mandatory consent forms would inhibit patient access to healthcare.

The final rule allows incidental disclosure of health information if minimum safeguard requirements are met. So doctors may use office sign-in sheets and hospital bedside charts. They may also converse with patients and healthcare staff without fear of violating the rule if overheard by a passerby.

The privacy rule provides parents with new rights to control the health information about their children who are minors, with limited exceptions based on state or other applicable law and professional practices.

Most healthcare entities must comply with the rule by April 14, 2003. HHS has published a HIPAA fact sheet on its Web site at http://aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/final/pvcfact2.htm. You can find another factsheet on the final rule at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/20020809.html.