HHS Issues Special HIPAA Bulletin on Ebola Privacy

Law360 ^ | 11/10/2014 | Erica Teichert

[wtd]

HHS Issues Special HIPAA Bulletin on Ebola

PrivacyLaw360, New York (November 10, 2014, 6:24 PM ET) --

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday issued a bulletin reminding health care centers and others about what information can and cannot be disclosed about Ebola patients...

[PapaBear3625]

Rather than click on some site that requires registration, here’s the actual item direct from HHS:

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/special/emergency/hipaa-privacy-emergency-situations.pdf

[wtd]

Excellent . . .thanks.

[PapaBear3625]

From HHS:

Disclosures to the Media or Others Not Involved in the Care of the Patient /Notification Upon request for information about a particular patient by name, a hospital or other health care facility may release limited facility directory information to acknowledge an individual is a patient at the facility and provide basic information about the patient’s condition in general terms (e.g., critical or stable, deceased, or treated and released) if the patient has not objected to or restricted the release of such information or, if the patient is incapacitated, if the disclosure is believed to be in the best interest of the patient and is consistent with any prior expressed preferences of the patient. See 45 CFR 164.510(a). In general, except in the limited circumstances described elsewhere in this Bulletin , affirmative reporting to the media or the public at large about an identifiable patient, or the disclosure to the public or media of specific information about treatment of an identifiable patient, such as specific tests, test results or details of a patient’s illness, may not be done without the patient’s written authorization (or the written authorization of a personal representative who is a person legally authorized to make health care decisions for the patient). See 45 CFR 164.508 for the requirements for a HIPAA authorization

In summary, they are clamping down on releasing info about Ebola cases.

[tcrlaf]

111 NEW Ebola cases in Sierra Leone, today.

[Gamecock]

Surprised it took so long.

[PghBaldy]

How the heck can there be an issue if the person(s) in question is not named? There is something insane about this country and what we put up with.

[matthew fuller]

Buckwheat is doing his damnedest to bring them to the USA.

http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/11/u-s-just-secretly-fly-african-ebola-patient/