HIPAA Q&A: Asking questions at registration
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, September 27, 2010
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Q. Is it a HIPAA violation for an outpatient clinic registrar to ask patients the reason for their visits?
A. This is acceptable provided that others in the registration area cannot hear the registrar’s conversations with patients. If the area is crowded and conversations are not private, the clinic could opt to ask patients to provide this information in writing when filling out registration or check-in forms.
Editor’s note: Mary D. Brandt, vice president, health information management, at Scott &White Healthcare, Temple, TX, answered these questions. She is a nationally recognized expert on patient privacy, information security, and regulatory compliance, and her publications provided some of the basis for HIPAA’s privacy regulations.
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