NEWS MAIN

13 Common Misconceptions Regarding HIPAA.

• State laws always supercede contrary provisions in HIPAA. Fact: State laws only supercede HIPAA when a state's statutes are stiffer.
• Hospitals and insurance companies are exempt from HIPAA . Fact: With extremely few exceptions, all hospitals, health plan administrators, clearinghouses, service providers, and all medical professionals are subject to HIPAA .
• HIPAA regulates only electronically transmitted data. Fact: HIPAA applies to all forms of communication: written, verbal and any form of electronic transmission
• Under HIPAA, the unintentional or accidental release of data cannot be treated as a criminal act. Fact: Like any accident, the degree of negligence assigned to the act, as well as the defendant's intent determine whether criminal or civil penalties apply.
• Information stored in archives by third parties is exempt. Fact: The use of third party bailment agents does not relieve or exempt the responsible parties from their HIPAA duties and obligations.
• Not all practicing physicians are subject to HIPPA . Fact: All practicing physicians are subject to some degree to HIPAA oversight.
• Dentists, optometrists, nurses, and pharmacists are exempted from HIPAA regulation. Fact: All healthcare professionals who handle or create patient records are subject to HIPAA and other privacy statutes.
• Recycling is an acceptable form of disposal under HIPAA. Fact: The practice of recycling medical records creates an anticipatable risk to both patient privacy and security, and is therefore a potential violation of HIPAA.
• In-house shredding programs prevent HIPAA related compliance issues from arising. Fact. In-house shredding programs potentially create more HIPAA concerns than they resolve, because document destruction cannot be independently certified, and because proper security protocol is rarely practiced.
• HIPAA rules do not pertain to healthcare clearinghouses. Fact: All such non-medical institutions serving the medical industry are subject to HIPAA.
• Verbal release of patient information is not a HIPAA violation. Fact: Unless authorized, verbal communication of medical information is subject to HIPAA, as is all written and transmitted data.
• If improperly released information is not exploited, there is no violation of the law. Fact: Improper release is in itself a violation of HIPAA. The act of failing to take reasonable care in protecting individually identifiable health information is likewise a violation.
  
• The release of individually identifiable information already in the public domain is not a HIPAA violation. Fact: The release of a patient's most innocuous and publicly available individually identifiable information by a medical professional ? such as a license number or address ? can be interpreted as a violation of HIPAA.

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Confidata document destruction located in Utica New York, is a member of NAID and follows FACTA and HIPAA records destruction requirements. CONFIDATA is a division of Empire Recycling Corporation

 

 

Confidata
N. Genesee & Lee Streets
PO Box 353 | Utica, NY 13503

 

Hours of Operation
Monday - Friday 7:30 to 4 PM

 

Phone: 1-800-62-SHRED
Fax: (315) 724-0167