An authorization generally applies when an organization wishes to use or disclose a patient’s protected health information for a purpose other than treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, or for legally required purposes. In this case, a patient must sign a HIPAA-compliant authorization form that specifically grants permission to the organization.
The use of electronic health records (EHR) should be guided by ethical principles that put patient care at the forefront, according to a position paper published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). EHRs can be an asset in delivery quality care, but may have unintended ethical consequences, the ACP said in a March 21 statement.
Q: Can we ask patients to submit a signed document stating who their personal representative(s) is/are? Can a patient have more than one personal representative?
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is planning to implement a regulation that would share HIPAA settlements and monetary penalties with individuals affected by breaches.
Hackers are targeting poorly secured file transfer protocol (FTP) servers to access protected health information (PHI), store malicious tools, or launch cyberattacks, according to an alert released by the FBI March 22.
Data integrity and analytics, increased HIPAA enforcement, patient-generated health data, and information security emerged as the top four topics at the 2017 Health Information and Management Systems Society national conference.
HIM Briefings’ 2017 EHR benchmark survey took a closer look at EHR implementation and use as well as the role of HIM in EHR management, including common challenges and benefits. Respondents shared experiences, discussed the impact of EHRs on data quality and security, and reflected on HIM’s role in ongoing EHR maintenance.
