Wiki HIPAA Concern Question

SRickman

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I work for an Urgent Care Type Facility. Once patients are checked in, their chart is placed on the wall for the next available Provider. If the patient needs an x-ray, a request is sent electronically from the Provider to the Radiology Dept. My question is it a HIPAA violation for the X-ray techs to look at all the Charts to ascertain which patients the Provider will submit an x-ray request for?

Thanks,
Sharon Rickman, CPC
 
If the provider is sending an electronic notification to radiology then the techs have no reason to "ascertain" which patients will be submitted for x-rays. It's a moot point since the techs should not be accessing records for patients other than those from which PHI is needed to do their specific job. This is a "minimum necessary" issue under HIPAA.

Minimum necessary is similar to the term "need to know", as used by government organizations, such as the military. Under need-to-know restrictions, (even if one has all the necessary official approvals), one would not be given access to such information, unless one has a specific need to know; that is, access to the information must be necessary in order to conduct one's official duties.

Hope that helps!
 
Hi Sharon,
I have to agree with Susan and knowing you like I do, I am sure you do too. Hopefully her answer gave you the information you needed to correct this. Hope you are doing good, it is nice to see you on the forum. :)
 
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