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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Law - HIPAA frustration: unnecessary secrecy is a “significant problem”

Jane Gross has an important story today on the front page of the NY Times, headlined "Keeping Patients’ Details Private, Even From Kin." She writes of "the way Hipaa is misunderstood by medical professionals, as well as the frustration — and even peril — that comes in its wake." More quotes:

Hipaa was designed to allow Americans to take their health insurance coverage with them when they changed jobs, with provisions to keep medical information confidential. But new studies have found that some health care providers apply Hipaa regulations overzealously, leaving family members, caretakers, public health and law enforcement authorities stymied in their efforts to get information.

Experts say many providers do not understand the law, have not trained their staff members to apply it judiciously, or are fearful of the threat of fines and jail terms — although no penalty has been levied in four years.

Some reports blame the language of the law itself, which says health care providers may share information with others unless the patient objects, but does not require them to do so. Thus, disclosures are voluntary and health care providers are left with broad discretion.

The unnecessary secrecy is a “significant problem,” said Mark Rothstein, chairman of a privacy subcommittee that advises the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Hipaa. “It’s drummed into them that there are rules they have to follow without any perspective,” he said about health care providers. “So, surprise, surprise, they approach it in a defensive, somewhat arbitrary and unreasonable way.”

Susan McAndrew, deputy director of health information privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services, said that problems were less frequent than they once had been but that health care providers continued to hide behind the law. “Either innocently or purposefully, entities often use this as an excuse,” she said. “They say ‘Hipaa made me do it’ when, in fact, they chose for other reasons not to make the permitted disclosures.”

This is a long story, with much more information.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 3, 2007 08:14 AM
Posted to General Law Related