What HIPAA Means for You

If you’ve ever started seeing a new doctor, getting prescriptions filled at a new pharmacy, or signed up for a new insurance plan, you’ve probably been asked to sign a piece of paper that has information on it about what your privacy rights are under HIPAA. Most people typically give this information, at most, a cursory glance over before signing it and don’t really give much thought about what HIPAA really is.

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. HIPAA is best known for dealing with patient confidentiality. Although protecting patient information is a key factor in HIPAA, the law actually consists of several different sections that cover different things like protecting health insurance coverage for people as they lose or change jobs, establishing nationwide standards for processing healthcare transactions and storing electronic records, setting requirements for securing patient data stored electronically, and more.

The aspects of HIPAA that deal with protecting patient information and access to your medical records are the parts of the act that directly impact the most people. Under these provisions of HIPAA, patients have a right to see or request copies of their medical records and to request corrections if errors are found. If you disagree with something you find in your medical records or believe some information is incomplete, you have a right to submit a written statement saying you disagree, which will be kept with your record.

Patients are also entitled to know how medical professionals share your information. There are some cases where medical professionals are legally allowed to share some of your information without your permission, such as if they’re working with another medical professional to figure out how to best treat you or if they’re reporting information to the government as required by law. For examples, doctors are asked to report information about certain diseases and illnesses they’ve treated so government agencies are able to monitor the prevalence of illnesses. Medical professionals are also legally required to report suspected cases of abuse and if they believe a person poses a danger to themselves.

Under HIPAA, patients are also allowed to find out who has seen their medical information and request that their information not be shared with certain parties. For example, if your employer requests to see your medical records, your doctor will not be allowed to share that information unless you have specifically authorized your employer to be able to be able to see them. This includes requesting that your information not be shared with other doctors or nurses, but this could have a negative impact on the quality of care you receive and your doctor might not agree to the request.

HIPAA also enables patients to tell doctors where to contact them. In some cases, a patient might prefer to be contacted at their office instead of at their home phone number, or they might not want a doctor to leave a message on their voicemail or not want to receive mail in a marked envelope.

Just like in many other industries, the healthcare industry greatly relies on digital storage for storing important information. Making sure that electronic data is stored securely so it isn’t compromised is a very important part of HIPAA. Title II of HIPAA requires healthcare providers to follow several rules for keeping patient information secure in order to be considered HIPAA compliant.