When HIPAA “Security” Law is Misinterpreted…
A good piece from the New York Times’ Paula Span (and her always relevant New Old Age Blog), HIPAA’s Use as Code of Silence Often Misinterprets the Law:
How do people use, misuse or abuse Hipaa, the federal regulations protecting patients’ confidential health information? Let us count the ways:
■ Last month, in a continuing care retirement community in Ithaca, N.Y., Helen Wyvill, 72, noticed that a friend hadn’t shown up for their regular swim. She wasn’t in her apartment, either.
Had she gone to a hospital? Could friends visit or call? Was anyone taking care of the dog? Questions to the staff brought a familiar nonresponse: Nobody could provide any information because of Hipaa.
“The administration says they have to abide by the law, blah, blah,” Ms. Wyvill said. “They won’t even tell you if somebody has died.”
Ms. Span has reported on HIPAA problems before in her column and she tracks attempts to find solutions that balance the needs for privacy with communication that would be helpful.
Another common complaint about Hipaa enforcement, by the way, is the lack of access to patients’ own health records, which they have a right to see or copy, though providers can charge copying fees.
Within families, decisions about how much health information to share, and with whom, often become complicated, as a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine found. When researchers working to design online patient portals convened two sets of focus groups — one for people over age 75, another for family caregivers — they heard the usual tension between older adults’ need for assistance and their desire for autonomy.
“Seniors say, ‘I don’t want to burden my kids with my medical issues,’ ” said Bradley Crotty, the director of patient portals at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the study’s lead author. “And the family is saying, ‘I’m already worried. Not knowing is the burden.’ ”
My thanks to my colleague Professor Laurel Terry for sharing this piece.