Helpful Q&A for Clinicians
As many physicians and researchers know, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) will go into effect on April 14, 2003. With the new mandate, many questions may arise, those that may or may not have been answered in the training you have completed.
The following are frequently asked questions and answers regarding HIPAA. For further information on any of the following explanations, contact Debbie Polansky, BWH privacy project manager, at ext. 2-6676.
Q: Can health care providers engage in confidential conversations with other providers or with patients, even if there is a possibility that they could be overheard?
A: Yes. HIPAA is not intended to prohibit providers from talking to each other or to their patients. It recognizes that oral communication often must occur freely and quickly in treatment settings and that overheard communication may be unavoidable and allows for incidental disclosures. In such circumstances, reasonable precautions could include using lowered voices or talking apart from others when sharing protected health information, to which most clinicians are already accustom.
Q: Under the new mandate, may physicians’ office staff or pharmacists leave messages for patients at their homes to either confirm an appointment or inform patients that their prescription is ready?
A: Communicating with patients at their homes through mail or phone messages is permitted. However, in order to safeguard an individual’s privacy, physicians and pharmacists should limit the amount of information disclosed on an answering machine. Leave only a name and number to confirm an appointment or ask the individual to call back.
Q: May physicians’ office staff use sign-in sheets or call out the names of their patients in their waiting rooms?
A: Yes, both are permitted, as long as the information disclosed is appropriately limited. For example, the sign-in sheet may not display medical information that is not necessary for the purpose of the sheet (e.g., the medical problem for which the patient is being seen).
Q: Are physicians and office staff prohibited from maintaining patient medical charts at the bedside or outside of exam rooms?
A: No. Clinicians must evaluate what measures make sense in their environment and tailor their practices and safeguards accordingly. However, additional measures, such as facing the chart toward the wall to protect the patient’s name or limiting access to patient care areas, are encouraged.
Q: May patient names be announced over BWH’s public announcement system?
A: Yes, however announcing “will patient Mary Smith please return to the
Cardiology Clinic” is not appropriate. A more appropriate announcement would be
“will Mary Smith please report to the 75 Francis Lobby Information Desk for an
important message.”
Computer-Based Training (CBT) is available for physicians to fulfill their HIPAA training requirement by April 14. The CBT should take no more than 30 minutes to complete.
To access the CBT module:
• The HCCS software is now available to BWH Medical Staff via the START button found on BWH workstations—PARTNERS APPLICATIONS/UTILITIES/PRIVACY TRAINING.
• BWH Medical Staff that wish to access the application via non-BWH workstations may do so by accessing the following URL http://portal.partners.org/hccs.
• At the log-on screen, you may need to pull the drop-down "Job Function" menu down and click on "All USERS" and then you should see viewing options at the bottom of the screen.
• After you have responded to #2 above, click "Continue" at the bottom of the screen and begin the training program.
Contact the BWH help desk at 617-732-5927 with any problems accessing the application.