EFFECTIVE LAST APRIL, everyone visiting a health care provider in the United States has been required to sign or initial a form stating they’ve received the new Notice of Privacy Practices.

The practices are part of a new federal law enacted as part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to protect patients’ medical records and other health information provided to health plans, hospitals and other health care providers.

These new federal standards provide you with access to your medical records and more control over how your personal health information is used and disclosed. Here are just a few important ways the law will be acting on your behalf.

Under the New Law

• DOCTORS, HOSPITALS, INSURERS AND HEALTH CARE COMPANIES WON’T BE ABLE TO SHARE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO HEALTH CARE. “We still can share anything that has to do with treatment among providers, hospitals and nursing homes. We can share anything that has to do with payment of the bill, but we must make patients aware, when they come in, of where their information is being released,” says Jacque Cockrell, director of risk management, compliance and HIPAA at Health-Central, a hospital in Orange County, Fla.

  Still, providers won’t be able to release your personal health information to a life insurer, a marketing firm or another outside business without your written consent.

• YOU GAIN MORE CONTROL. Under HIPAA, you can request that your health care providers and health plans take reasonable steps to ensure your communications are confidential.

  For example, you could ask your doctor to call your office rather than home, and the doctor’s office should comply with that request. You also have the right to obtain a copy of your own health records and request corrections.

• YOU HAVE LEGAL RECOURSE. If you believe your health information privacy rights have been violated, HIPAA grants patients the right to file a formal complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, and civil and criminal penalties may be imposed.
• YOUR DOCTOR’S VERBAL, WRITTEN AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS ARE MORE COVERT. When you visit your doctor, for example, you’ll still write your name on the sign-in sheet, but under the new law, health care providers can’t ask you to write down the nature of your visit, such as “Mr. Jones, bladder infection.”

  On the phone, your doctor still can leave a message on your answering machine, but as result of HIPAA, it will be cryptic. “Now, I just say ‘Hi, Mrs. Williams. Please call the doctor’s office at this number,’ ” says Scott E. Newman, M.D., FACS, chief of plastic surgery at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Westchester, N.Y.

• FAXING GETS FORMALIZED. When doctors fax patient medical information to another health care provider for treatment purposes, they now must take steps to safeguard the information.

  “The cover page of anything we send discusses the privacy law,” says Newman. “We also call before we send a fax to find out who’s going to receive it.”

Ultimately, these laws are a step forward in protecting your privacy and your records.

By Sandra Gordon, a feature writer for Vitality. For more information about the patient protections you’re afforded under HIPAA, log on to the United States Department of Health & Human Services at www.hhs.gov/news/facts/privacy.html.

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