Wiki HIPPA in Rural Hospitals

[morganscott]

If there is only one medical coder for a rural critical access hospital, and a family member (niece or nephew, cousin, sibling, ex-spouse, ex-inlaws, step-sibling/parent, etc) comes into the ED for services, will that employee violate HIPPA laws by processing the chart?

 

[thomas7331]

By my understanding, it is not a HIPAA violation to process your family member's chart as long as you are only reviewing what you need in order to do your job, and you are not sharing any of the information with anyone else who is not eligible to have it.

That said, it's good you're asking this question and it may be considered a conflict of interest or might otherwise violate your organization's policies, so I would recommend discussing it with your organization's compliance officer first, if for no other reason than to at least give you the reassurance that you're doing the right thing and not going to questioned about accessing that record at a later date. If your organization doesn't have some written policy for these situations in place already, they should probably consider creating something so that you aren't put in this position again going forward.

 

[sls314]

If there is only one medical coder for a rural critical access hospital, and a family member (niece or nephew, cousin, sibling, ex-spouse, ex-inlaws, step-sibling/parent, etc) comes into the ED for services, will that employee violate HIPPA laws by processing the chart?

No. If processing the chart as part of normal business duties, it is not a HIPAA violation. You still have a duty to only access the minimum necessary information to perform your work duties, and you still have the same obligations to keep the information private as you would with any other patient.

I would loop in your supervisor and/or your compliance officer, just so you know that you're proceeding according to your employer's internal policies and protecting yourself in the case the chart is ever audited down the road.