About the Problems Encountered With HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, may have started with a good intent, namely to keep medical information confidential, but this act comes with unintended consequences. Frustration abounds regarding HIPAA from the medical front as well as from family members of patients.

Significance

• HIPAA makes it difficult or impossible for family members or caretakers to find out information about a patient. This often occurs because some health care providers are overzealous in how they interpret HIPAA laws, points out Dr. Michael Rack of Mississippi, on his Rebel Doctor website. Because the law is unclear, explains Rack, health care providers often take the safest route for their job security and not share information with family members, even if they are authorized to receive information.

Function

• Family members who make a phone call to check on the patient's status are routinely frustrated because of the lack of information given. It used to be routine for family to make these calls, says Dr. Kathryn Stewart of Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, on the FPReport, an online news source provided by the American Academy of Family Physicians, also called the AAFP. Now, the health care facility cannot give out patient information over the phone.

Effects

• Not only are family members denied patient information, attending physicians can have trouble getting information on a patient. The FPReport recounts an incident of Dr. Arlene Brown of New Mexico, who referred a patient to a psychiatric hospital emergency room. When Brown called the hospital for a follow-up on her patient, the hospital would not release information to her because of HIPAA.

Misconceptions

• A study conducted by Dr. Shannon H. Houser and Dr. Richard M. Shewchuk, published in the spring 2007 edition of "Perspectives in Health Information Management," concludes that better clarification of HIPAA and more extensive training of health care workers should be addressed. As it stands in 2010, problems in implementation and interpretation of the intent of the law abound.

Warning

• Epidemiologists -- medical scientists who study and control diseases -- also report problems with HIPAA. These problems include restricted access to databases, restricted access to individual medical records and an increasing complexity of HIPAA-related forms, according to the American College of Epidemiology. If epidemiologists are to conduct their jobs, leading to disease prevention, they need access to personal health data.