Q&A: Tracking e-mails with PHI
HIM Connection, January 24, 2012
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM Connection!
Q: The draft accounting of disclosures rule may require tracking e-mails sent between healthcare providers, and between healthcare providers and patients, so providers can include them in an access accounting report. Does this mean covered entities need to log e-mail messages sent that include protected health information (PHI)?
A At this time there is no need to specifically track PHI included in e-mail messages. As of press time, the draft rule is not yet finalized, and thus, neither are any tracking requirements that are identified in or go beyond what the HITECH Act requires. It is unknown at this point what the final rule will require.
The proposed rule requires covered entities to account for information included in the electronic designated record set (DRS). If an e-mail message is not made a part of an individual's electronic DRS, the covered entity does not need to track it or include it in an access accounting report.
Editor’s note: Chris Apgar, CISSP, CEO and president of Apgar & Associates, LLC, in Portland, OR, answered this question, which first appeared in the January issue of Briefings on HIPAA.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM Connection!
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- E-mailed
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- CMS has reformulated payments for some bilateral procedures
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- New conflicts of interest create new challenges
- Q/A. One injection code or two?
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Identify modifiable risk factors to prevent patient falls
- Hospitals are not bound by InterQual criteria for determining patient status
- Searched