Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

How far do your attorney's obligations go?

Will the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rule come back to haunt you if you get sued by a patient for something completely unrelated to medical records confidentiality? The answer right now is a little murky - and the American Health Lawyers Association wants the HHS Office for Civil Rights to clarify the matter. In an Oct. 28 letter to OCR Director Richard Campanelli, the AHLA's Health Information Technology practice group points out that HIPAA-covered entities "could be substantially disadvantaged in litigation by having to include disclosures made for legal representation" in an accounting of disclosures. "The Privacy Standards should not be permitted to be used as a tool to gain advantage in litigation," says the letter, penned by Kristen Rosati with Coppersmith Gordon Schermer Owens & Nelson in Phoenix. The letter also asks OCR to clarify issues relating to providers' lawyers' relationships with expert witnesses and court reporters and the application of the minimum necessary rule to health care providers' attorneys. To see the letter, go to www.healthlawyers.org/pg/hit/docs/rosati_final.pdf. Lesson Learned: HIPAA may have more complicated implications for your relationship with your attorney than you think.