Well, I’m back after a long lay off. I’ve spent the last couple months focusing on long term care planning and the needs for such planning have kept me busy! On an associated subject, the following article regarding HIPAA has come to my attention:
Many folks run into HIPAA everyday. Basically, HIPAA is a federal law that deals with patient’s privacy and access to their medical records.
I most commonly run into HIPAA when long term care planning for folks. If you become mentally or physically incapacitated and someone needs to manage your health decisions through a Florida designation of healthcare surrogate, which in some states is called a healthcare proxy or healthcare power of attorney, your surrogate needs to have access to your medical records in order to make informed decisions. I typically provide clients with a HIPAA authorization so that anyone my client chooses can access my client’s medical records in a time of need without interference with HIPAA.
Without a HIPAA authorization, you are likely to get stone walled when it comes to access to someone else’s medical information. Like many estate planning techniques, you won’t realize the need for a HIPAA authorization unless you don’t have one. For example, I’ve had a client whose step-son was trying to help with the client’s medical care and health insurance. The step-son couldn’t talk to the health insurance company without a HIPAA authorization. What a pain!
Now, back to the article that I posted. The article raises another issue. Your access to your own medical records. Here, Cignet was fined $4.3 million because they did not provide patients their medical records despite the patients’ requests and it was continuously stubborn in the investigation.
My two takeaways from this article are: (1) you have a right to obtain your medical record upon requests; and (2) you need to understand the importance of having a HIPAA authorization because health care providers strictly adhere to HIPAA and they do not want a fine such as the one Cignet received.
