Privacy

What is HIPAA?
How will new privacy and security laws affect you?

Beginning in 2003, new rules apply for the protection and release of medical information. This new law, HIPAA, or Health Information Portability and Accountability Act is turning the medical world upside down. Originally, the bill was intended to make electronic transmission of information more secure, as when we send bills to insurance companies electronically. It also includes a section on patient privacy and access to their own health records.

At TCJR, we have been slowly implementing changes to the way we do business to accommodate the law's requirements. New forms, new ways of conducting business and new equipment will begin to appear as we implement the required changes. You, as a patient will gain rights to control who sees your chart, but will have a lot more paperwork to sign to ensure that we are following your wishes. As a provider, we are required to secure all medical information, and to adhere to security protocols dealing with patients, computers and in transmitting claims which will undoubtedly slow payments. The new rules are phased in over a 12-month period and you will see many changes in the way we interact with you.

There are two parts to HIPAA. The first part pertains to protection of your privacy. You must consent in writing to be treated, and to any release of your medical or personal information.

You have the right to ask for your medical information. We will not charge you for the information but may charge you to retrieve it since that sometimes takes a long time and several phone calls. We can provide you with copies of our office notes, x-rays and some of the hospital notes that our doctors dictated in the hospital. We cannot provide other documents generated by the hospital, such as lab results, x-rays, nursing notes, etc, because we don’t have copies of these items.

You must consent in writing to all records releases. We will not be able to respond to verbal requests to transfer records to a new doctor. You also must be specific about what we are to release. We can no longer accept blanket statements like: "Please release all my records to…."

You have the right to know who accesses your medical records. We are required to keep a log of any requests to see your chart. So every time an outside source (such as the government) asks for records to confirm treatment outcomes, we have to log that request.

You have the right to restrict release of your information to certain people. These requests must be in writing and include effective dates. This includes family members who may want to come with you to appointments. This also means that you can request that we leave messages on a particular phone to restrict access to the message.