DrugBuyers.Com: New Medical Privacy Rules Effective Monday

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New Medical Privacy Rules Effective Monday

Reported by: Tom McKee
Web produced by: Stacy Puzo
Photographed by: 9News
4/11/03 4:41:56 PM

New national medical patient privacy rules, officially called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability, "HIPPA" for short, will go into effect Monday.
HIPPA is the government's attempt to protect patient privacy at or in hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, pharmacies, doctors' offices, hospices and health plans.

Congress passed the bill in 1996, regulations were finalized last August and compliance is required by next Monday.

Teresa Zinck and husband Rodney have been in and out of University Hospital several times this year for her surgeries and she's accumulated a large file of medical records and worries that they'll stay private.

Not surprisingly, she likes what HIPPA does.

"I just think it's a good idea. I think that you should have the right to only let who you want to know your information," said Zinck.

"What HIPPA does is strike a balance between the information that people need to know and the information people want protected," Nancy Strassel, Vice President of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council.

Strassel has helped members implement the new program and she says the law stems from people concerned they would not get health insurance if they changed jobs.

"Obviously, those in the treatment field need to know, but beyond that HIPPA begins to ask questions about who really needs to have access to people's medical information," Strassel said.

Hospitals, for example, may be able to release some data, but it's limited to the patient's name, location within a facility, condition in general terms and for clergy only.

At the Health Point Medical Center in Bellevue, numerous records changes are being made.

Records cannot be kept where names can be read by unauthorized people, computer screens have to be shielded from people who don't need to know and signs are being posted in English and in Spanish.

"We're going to be locking up medical records at night more than we used to do so they won't be lying around on the counter where I suppose if somebody broke in they could see them," said Dr. Toby Acheson, Health Point Family Care Medical Director.

The new rules will restrict reporter access to information especially in breaking news situations.

For example, if a reporter was trying to determine the number and nature of injuries from an accident they have to know the name of a patient to get any information and any patient can ask that his or her name be left off a directory available to the public.