Practice Management Alert

Question: With hurricane season approaching, I want to bone up on the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and how it applies during disasters. What information can I give about my patients in which circumstances without violating the privacy rule?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: Know these four situations where sharing patient information is OK during a disaster, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights: treatment, notification, imminent danger, and facility directory.

OCR says that providers can share information about patients when doing so is necessary to:

• provide treatment;
• identify, locate, and notify family members or anyone else responsible for that individual’s care or that individual’s location, condition, or death; and
• prevent or reduce a significant imminent threat to the health and safety of that individual or to the public (“consistent with applicable law and the provider’s standards of ethical conduct”).

OCR also notes that providers maintaining a directory of patients can release an individual patient’s info if a person calls or asks whether that individual patient is at the facility, where she is at the facility, and her general condition.