Jeanette Martin
Charity Booker
HCR 210
9/4/11
Releasing Protected Health Information
There was a time when patients were at ease and had no worries when handing their personal information over to their doctors. The staff would take their personal information and lock it in a filing cabinet or storage room on the facility. However, nowadays most of all doctors’ offices have converted over to electronic filing, which takes individuals information and stores it into a database. This ...view middle of the document...
However, legal agencies or representatives do not have to obtain consent from the patient that they are representing from the medical facility. Consent is needed if the agencies are representing the patient. Business associates must assure that patient information will be handled by the guidelines. The information can be handled without the patients consent. The down side is many people will still have access to patient information. Therefore, business associates seem to be somewhat risky when handling patient personal information.
Research groups have different requirement for consent for individuals. Research groups are required by law to seek informed consent from their research participants or his or hers legally authorized representative. The consent must be documented according to certain guidelines so the research participant’s data is maintained confident which ensures their patients privacy. However, consent that is given for an individual’s information is not the consent that is needed for treatment. In addition, the HIPAA Privacy Rule does require health care providers to get the patients consent before receiving treatment. A covered entity is allowed to seek your consent, and some state laws require patient consent for treatment, payment, and other disclosures. They are also allowed to make an effort to obtain your acknowledgment that you received a notice of privacy practices. I have noticed in the new medical changes that have occurred, there are many lawsuits filed against physicians, facilities, and pharmacies for sharing third party information. I believe, these are some issues that desperately need to be handled in a professional manner, so that individual’s information is not violated and their privacy is protected.
There are many policies in...