The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 – HIPAA – was meant to force the healthcare industry to computerize, which was supposed to save money and enable the free flow of information to help medical professionals provide better healthcare. But to no one’s surprise, computerization of personal information gave rise to privacy concerns and more regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services that give you the right to know what information of yours is stored and to control how that information is used.
Everyone who has access to your medical information – doctors, dentists and insurers – is bound by HIPAA provisions. Here’s what these provisions mean for you.
- Anyone who maintains records on your health must tell you how they’ll use and disclose that information.
- You can ask for copies of your medical records, make changes to inaccuracies and find out with whom the records have been shared.
- You must give formal consent (hence, all the forms you fill out) before someone may share your health records.
- Your health information may be used only for health purposes and not, without your say-so, to help potential employers or lenders make their decisions.
Psychotherapist notes receive special HIPAA attention. Basically, what you tell a therapist or case manager may not be disclosed without your consent unless the information will help an authority prevent imminent and serious harm – read “death” – to another person.
Although HIPAA prevents the misuse and willy-nilly spread of your medical information, some doctors, researchers and hospitals object to the regulations. Maintaining a paper trail is time-consuming and expensive, they say, and consumes resources that could be better used for direct patient care. Also, some say, HIPAA chokes the easy flow of medical information that researchers need in order to create better treatments and outcomes.
Here’s a HIPAA fun fact: Computer apps, use-at-home medical and DNA tests, and gadgets that track your blood pressure and exercise habits may not be addressed under HIPAA, which was passed before much of this information-gathering technology was developed.
Copyright 2020
