Questions tagged [hipaa]

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a United States statute that mandates privacy and security protocols for personal medical information.

The regulations promulgated by HHS pursuant to HIPAA are here.

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How is it legal for a hospital to put two patients together in the same room in the US?

In the United States we have HIPAA regulations in place to (among other things) prevent healthcare providers, insurance providers, and any other entity that handles medical information from leaking patient information. From my experience with…
Adam Plocher
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If a minor requested a doctor prescribe her birth control, can she demand the doctor not disclose her request to her parents?

Let's say a 16 year old girl manages to speak to her doctor in private during a regular appointment and requests birth control. She is afraid her parents would respond poorly to knowing she is considering sexual intercourse, and so requests the…
dsollen
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Does HIPAA apply to individuals?

Does HIPAA privacy protection apply to an individual who has no relation to the healthcare field? For example, my neighbor drops his prescription pill bottle on the sidewalk outside his house. I pick it up and return it. Would me telling someone…
Kevin
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Does HIPAA protect against doctors giving prescriptions to pharmacists that you didn't approve?

My doctor sent a prescription to a pharmacist his clinic had a relationship with. I didn't approve this transaction. Is it legal for him to share my prescription with a pharmacist I didn't approve? I gave him the name of the pharmacist I wanted to…
Evan Carroll
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For HIPAA, Does US Patient Data Have To Stay On US Servers?

For an application that stores US patient data, does HIPAA require that US data stays on US servers?
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Does HIPAA require a secondary physician to share results with your primary?

NY state here. If I go to get a second opinion from a physician other than my primary, are there any regulations (HIPAA or otherwise) that require that 2nd physician to share consultation notes/lab results with my primary?
smeeb
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What is the most comparable American law to GDPR right to subject access? Privacy Act?

HIPAA seems comparable but only applies to medical data, but is there anything more general than that? How does privacy act compare to data subject access rights under gdpr? Is it that it only applies to government entities but not private sector…
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What does HIPAA say about a third party reviewing protected health information and related records?

Suppose that in a US county the County Board of Commissioners wants to engage a retired physician to look into the county ambulance dispatch system to see what it takes to create proper records and successful billing. In the US, the HIPAA rules…
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Is self-reported wellness covered by HIPPA?

Suppose that a developer creates a website where people can enter daily information on how they feel (energy, back pain, mood, etc.). A person's information would be available to his or her nutritionist, who may or may not have any formal…
Dan R.
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Decrypt information for internal technical purposes in a HIPAA compliant way

Consider a scenario where a company operates a service which is HIPAA compliant. This service requires storing patient emails which may contain personally identifiable information (PII). This PII is redacted and encrypted when the email is stored at…
Uri
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Do parents have access to an adult child's childhood medical records

After my child turns 18, I know I am blocked from seeing any new medical records, unless they give explicit permission. However, does that mean I am blocked from their pediatric medical records? Their pediatric provider sent me their complete…
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Is it a HIPAA violation to use a personal email to set up a medical billing account at work?

This question from the workplace stackexchange asks: I recently resigned from my job ... in NY ... Now I am being asked to tell them all my usernames and passwords for websites I used for my job as a medical biller ie, insurance websites, Medicare,…
BobRodes
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Do the HIPAA regulations in the United States prevent medical providers from disclosing relevant health information on patient A to patient B?

If a medical provider is aware of some health information on patient A that can affect patient B, do the HIPAA regulations still prevent the medical provider from conveying that information to patient B? For example, if patient A is patient B's…
Franck Dernoncourt
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Does HIPAA prevent doctors from sharing statistics?

In the US, where HIPAA prevents doctors from disclosing patient information, can a doctor disclose information about his patients in general, since he's not disclosing information about any specific patient? For instance, can a doctor disclose that…
DonielF
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Medical privacy and record-keeping laws before HIPAA

The HIPAA "Privacy Rule" regulates the use and disclosure of an individual's personal health information by covered entities. Were there any laws or regulations governing such use and disclosure before HIPAA? For example: if a doctor's office in…
mweiss
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