Information from alternative locations
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, May 3, 2004
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
Q: As a healthcare provider, are we required to honor requests from individuals to send communications to them at alternative locations or by alternative means? What are some examples of the confidential requests that we might receive?
A: A covered healthcare provider must permit individuals to request--and must accommodate reasonable requests by individuals to receive--communications of protected health information from the covered healthcare provider by alternative means or at alternative locations.
As for the second part of the question, Department of Health and Human Services commentary gives the example of an individual who does not want his or her family members to know about a certain treatment. To shield family members from this information, he or she may request that the provider communicate information about that treatment at the individual's place of employment, by mail to a designated address, or by phone to a designated phone number. Similarly, an individual may request that the provider send communications in a closed envelope rather than a post card.
See http://www.bricker.com/legalservices/practice/hcare/hipaa/164.522b.asp for more information.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
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
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- 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: Follow CMS' coding guidelines when using modifier -25
- Q/A. One injection code or two?
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- ED-to-inpatient transfers are flawed with safety gaps
- Searched