What you need to know about HIPAA Right of Access?

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What you need to know about HIPAA Right of Access?

• This week the Office of Civil Rights settled five
  cases of HIPAA Right of access violations.
• All the five providers have agreed to pay
  penalties and implement a corrective action plan
  under OCR supervision. 
• Last year, two more providers, Bayfront and Korund
  a paid similar fines for violating the HIPAA
  Right of access provision. 

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Heres the list of the five HIPAA settlements
declared this week by the OCR. 
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• The OCR enforcement actions are being seen as a
  direct message from the OCR to the healthcare
  community about the importance of the HIPAA Right
  of access provision. 
• As per OCR Director Roger Severino, Patients
  cant take charge of their health care decisions,
  without timely access to their own medical
  information.
• Early 2019, the office for civil rights (OCR)
  announced the HIPAA Right of access initiative.
• Under this initiative, the OCR is vigorously
  enforcing the rights of patients to get access to
  their medical records promptly, without being
  overcharged, and in a readily producible format.

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• Mid 2019, a study revealed that nearly 51 of
  providers fail to comply with the HIPAA Right of
  access provision.
• Most providers failed to provide the requested
  information within 30 days. 
• Of the five providers penalized this week, AIMS,
  King MD and Wise Psychiatry were investigated
  after receiving complaints that the providers
  werent allowing patients to access their PHI.
• BILHBS was investigated upon a complaint that the
  provider failed to respond in a timely manner.

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What is HIPAA Right of Access provision?

• The HIPAA privacy rule provides individuals with
  a legal enforceable right to see and receive a
  copy of the information in their medical and
  health records maintained by their healthcare
  providers and health plans.
• This includes the right to inspect or obtain a
  copy of their PHI, as well as to direct the
  covered entity to transmit a copy to another
  person or entity of the individuals choice. 

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• A covered entity cannot deny an individuals
  request, except for certain limited
  circumstances.
• And, they must respond to the request as soon as
  possible. 
• The permissible time limit for fulfilling a
  request is 30 days.
• A covered entity can extend this time by another
  30 days, but only if it provides the patient with
  the reason for the delay.
• This should be in writing.
• All requests must be fulfilled within 60 days. 

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What information can be disclosed? 

• Once a covered entity receives a request for PHI
  access, they need to check if the requested
  information can be disclosed.
• The list of PHI that can be disclosed under the
  Right of access provision is huge. 

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Patients can request for information such as  

• Medical records
• Billing and payment records
• Insurance information
• Clinical and laboratory test results
• Wellness and disease management program files
• Medical images, such as X-rays
• Clinical notes

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