Download HIPPA laws Merck.com

HIPPA laws
 Merck.com
•Health care practitioners have a duty to keep
personal medical information
confidential.
•Communication between the patient and doctor is
strictly confidential.
•Even well-meaning family members
are not necessarily allowed to have
information about a person's medical
condition
All people are entitled to
confidentiality unless they give
permission for disclosure or they
clearly can no longer express a
preference (for example, if they are severely
confused or comatose).
A federal law called the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA,
applies to most health care
practitioners and sets detailed
rules regarding privacy, access,
and disclosure of information. For
example, HIPAA specifies the
following:
People should normally be able to
see and obtain copies of their
medical records and request
corrections if they find mistakes.
Health care practitioners should
routinely disclose their practices
regarding privacy of personal
medical information.
Health care practitioners may share
the person's medical information,
but only among themselves and
only as much as is necessary to
provide medical care.
Personal medical information may
not be disclosed for marketing
purposes.
Health care practitioners should
take reasonable precautions to
ensure that their communications
with the person are confidential.
People may file complaints about
privacy practices of health care
practitioners.
At the same time, HIPAA rules
should not be read to create
barriers to normal communications
with a patient's family or friends.
The rules permit doctors or other
health care practitioners to share
information that is directly relevant
to the involvement of a spouse,
family members, friends, or other
people identified by a patient
If the patient has the capacity to
make health care decisions, the
doctor may discuss this
information with the family or
others present if the patient agrees
or, when given the opportunity,
does not object
Even when the patient is not
present or it is not practical to ask
the patient's permission because of
emergency or incapacity, a doctor
may share this information with
family members or friends when, in
exercising professional judgment,
the doctor determines that doing so
would be in the best interest of the
patient.
 Health care practitioners are sometimes
required by law to disclose certain
information, usually because the
condition may present a danger to
others.
 For example, certain infectious diseases,
such as human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) infection, syphilis, and
tuberculosis, must be reported to state
or local public health agencies.
Conditions that might seriously
impair a person's ability to drive,
such as dementia or recent
seizures, must be reported to the
Department of Motor Vehicles in
some states.