RUNNING HEAD: HIPPA & PRIVACY NOTICE Ethical & Legal Issues in Counselor Education & Supervision HIPPA & Privacy Notices HIPPA and Privacy Notice What is HIPPA? HIPPA is a federal law titled the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Compliance is overseen by the The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Why was HIPAA established? To protect employees’ insurance when they have lost or changed jobs. To protect the privacy and security of patients’ health information. To adopt national standards for electronic health care transactions. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system. What do the HIPAA regulations do for health care? Protects patients’ rights regarding their health information, including the right to review it and make decisions about how it is used and disclosed. Provides for appropriate use and disclosure of patients’ health information. Requires health care providers to implement safeguards to ensure privacy of patients’ health information. What do the privacy regulations focus on? Individually identifiable information, which means it identifies the patient or could be used to identify the patient. Paper or electronic patient medical or health records. Patient information exchanged verbally. Information relating to the past, present, or future physical or mental condition of an individual. Research data that identifies individual patients. In the Notice of Privacy Practices counselors are required to inform clients about their rights under state and federal law. Notice of Privacy needs to include information in the following eight sections: Right to Contact Right to release Medical Records Right to inspect and copy medical billing records Right to add information or amend medical records Client contact information and consent to contact Written authorization to release records to others Right to revoke release in writing Right to inspect and copy records · Counselor may deny this request · Charges for copying, mailing, etc. May request to amend record · Number of days to decide · May deny the request HIPPA and Privacy Notice Right to Accounting of disclosures Right to request restrictions on uses and disclosures of healthcare information Right to complain · If denied, right to file disagreement statement · Disagreement state and your response will be filled in the record · Amendment request must be in writing For a seven-year period beginning with date the counselor came into compliance · Exceptions: · Disclosure for treatment, payment or healthcare operations · Disclosures pursuant to a signed release · Disclosure made to client · Disclosures for national security or law enforcement Must be in writing · Counselors are not obligated to agree · Please contact counselor first · If not satisfied, right to complain to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services · No retaliation against client May request any future changes Right to receive changes in policy · Request to privacy officer Information retried from www.aca.com (Copyright 1/05/05 Walsh and Dasenbrook ) References Act, A. 1996. "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996," Public law (104), p. 191. American Counseling Association. (2014). Code of ethics. Alexandria, VA: Author Department of Health and Human Services. Modifications to the HIPAA privacy, security, enforcement, and breach notification rules under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; other modifications to the HIPAA Rules. https://s3.amazonaws.com/public -inspection.federalregister.gov/2013-01073.pdf. Accessed June 13, 2020.
