Health Information Management

CA Cancer Registry regains access to cancer patients’ records

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, December 13, 2004

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A settlement between the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and the state Department of Health and Human Services granted the California Cancer Registry access to information on the medical center's cancer patients. The deal comes after a two-year struggle between the organizations caused, in part, by the HIPAA privacy regulations, according to Scripps Howard News Service.

In December of 2002, the medical center started restricting access to these records, citing HIPAA privacy regulations as the cause. This led to 17 other hospitals in the Bay Area taking similar action.

Under the new settlement, the Cancer Registry again has full access to the records. "We've come to an agreement that the day-to-day functions of the Cancer Registry are perfectly consistent with the requirements of HIPAA," Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of prevention services for the state HHS, told Scripps.



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