Assignment
As the HIM Director of an acute care hospital you are charged with the responsibility of maintaining the hospital-wide confidentiality policies and procedures and managing the access and disclosure of healthcare information. You review federal and state guidelines as well as other examples of access and disclosure policies from other organizations for benchmarking purposes.
Review the two guidelines below
1. HIPAA Privacy Rules Summary from HHS
2. The AHIMA Notice of Privacy Practices AHIMA Practice Brief
After reviewing the guidelines, use the sample policies on patient confidentiality, disclosure and access you have obtained from Columbia University Medical Center at the links below.
Authorization to Disclose Medical Information
To benchmark if the Columbia University Medical Center policies meet the required HIPAA guidelines. Create a table that highlight the key guidelines and identifies if the Columbia University Medical Center policies include the appropriate section and wording. Recommend revisions to the policies if needed Based on those recommendations write a policy for your organization using the Columbia University Medical Center policies as the template.
Once your policy is written, consider the following types of requests for information that have been problematic for your organization based on your review of the ROI Disclosure Logs and assess and support that your revised policy will allow your ROI staff to have sufficient guidance to respond to the request or indicate what further revisions need to be considered. Use the table summarize your findings.
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ROI Scenario
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Policy Address Scenario
Yes or No
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If Yes- Indicate Section
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If No Indicate what should be added to the policy
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A non-custodial parent with visitation rights wanting records while caring for the child.
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An attorney representing a client in a medical negligee lawsuit against the surgeon who performed A surgery on a patient that resulted in serious complications.
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A physician from another faddy who has been asked to consult on a patient's case.
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A subpoena duces tecum for mental health records
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