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Help your registration staff remain HIPAA-compliant

Patient Access Weekly Advisor, May 28, 2008

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“Your front desk staff touch with HIPAA at all different levels,” says Lisa Simmons, CHAM, manager of patient access at West Virginia University Hospitals, Inc., in Morgantown. “Obviously, the first part is the patient confidentiality part. The next part that they struggle with, that we have to spend a lot of time educating them on, is understanding when you can share information in the context of your job.”

As a patient access manager, you can never have too many reminders and training sessions regarding HIPAA. The following are 8 tips you can give staff members to help them remember to protect patients’ privacy:

1. Never share unauthorized information. Do not share information, even with a family member, unless the patient approves it.
2. Inform the patient about the hospital directory. Ask the patient whether he or she would like to be included in the facility’s directory. Some facilities give patients a number they can share with their relatives or friends that allows them to get information about their care.
3. Make no exceptions for the patient’s family members. Only visitors approved by the patient may obtain information.
4. Never leave a computer screen or paperwork in plain view. Turn paperwork over when you leave your desk and put it away at the end of the day, and lock your computer screen when you leave your desk.
5. Keep your voice down. In some hospitals, it is impossible to keep a conversation solely between a registrar and a patient because of space constraints. Some registrars take small steps to help keep the process private, never asking for Social Security numbers unless they have to, and not yelling out patients’ names unless necessary.
6. Shred all documents. The trash is the worst place to discard a document that contains patient in-formation. Shred all documents and throw them into a recycle bin, which is not as public as a trash bucket in the ER.
7. Validate patient identification. Because of the potential for insurance identification fraud, registrars must be thorough in checking patients’ identification.
8. Verify patient identification over the phone. Ask for a patient’s Social Security number, birth date, and anything that would help establish his or her identity over the phone before proceeding. If you are prompted to leave a message, simply identify yourself and request a callback.

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