HIPAA Compliance by Phil Runyon

HIPAA Compliance

If I've had anything to do with your planning, most of you have completed Health Care Directives, to give a trusted person the ability to make health care decisions for you if you're unable to do so yourself.  If you reviewed them before you signed, you may have noticed that they give your agent the right to have access to your medical records.  The reason this is specifically mentioned is that under the Health Care Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or HIPAA (yep, it's a federal law), your medical records are so extremely confidential that even your spouse or child isn't allowed to see them - or talk about them with your doctor - without your written OK.  While privacy is certainly a good thing in the abstract, it seems - to me - a little over the top to lock them up, even from your closest family members, like they're nuclear launch codes.  Then again, Congress' mantra seems to be, "anything worth doing is worth overdoing." Please pardon the mini-editorial.

Those of you whose Health Care Directives pre-date 1996 don't have the medical records release.  That's a reason in itself to consider a new one, but it's also likely that the person you named as your agent - or backup agent - almost 20 years ago may no longer be the right choice. Plus, I would be nervous that an authorizing document that old might be considered too stale to be recognized when the critical need arises - and it will be too late at that point to execute a new one.  Check yours out if you can still find the copies, or let me know and I'll make more for you.

In the meantime, I want to make sure those of you without a medical records authorization are covered, as well as any of you who may want someone else to have access to your medical environment.  We'll supply the necessary form free of charge if you give us a call, and I think you'll be able to figure out how to complete it - unlike many we have to wrestle with on a regular basis.

I've added to the form that a copy of the original should be honored; however, it might be a good idea to have several originals, just in case a hospital or physician requires that for their records.  We'll also be happy to hold an original for you here if that would be helpful in a pinch.

(Posted on 04/05/2013)