Quick lesson on medical record privacy

1. Medical Records and
Confidentiality
Kelly S. McKenna
Week 1, Discussion 2

2. BEFORE YOU SNEAK A PEAK AT THAT
MEDICAL RECORD THERE ARE SOME
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
• $100 civil penalty up to a maximum of $25,00 per
year for each standard violated
• Criminal penalties for knowingly disclosing PHI
up to a maximum of $250,000

3. HIPPA
• BE INFORMED:
The HIPAA Privacy Rule provides federal protections for individually
identifiable health information held by covered entities and their
business associates and gives patients an array of rights with respect to
that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that
it permits the disclosure of health information needed for patient care
and other important purposes.

4. WHAT INFORMATION?
This is virtually all information about a patient, whether
written on paper, saved on a computer, or spoken
aloud. This includes their:
• Name
• Address
• Age
• Social Security number
• Other personal information
• License plate numbers
• Fax machine numbers

5. YOUR ROLE
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
• Treat patients’ personal information as you would like your own
information to be treated: Keep it secure and respect their right to
privacy.
• Use passwords that are not obvious (password is not a password;
neither is 12345), keep them in a secure place that is also password
protected, and change them regularly.
• If you need to be in patient areas, be discreet
• Keep your voice down when discussing patient information both in
person and over the phone.

6. REFERENCES
Summary of the HIPPA privacy rule. Retrieved from:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/