HIPAA Training& Compliance

What is HIPAA?HIPAA seeks to establish standardized mechanisms for electronic data interchange, security, and confidentiality of all healthcare-related data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or “HIPAA” includes punishments for anyone caught violating patient privacy. Those who do so for financial gain can be fined as much as $250,000 or go to jail for as many as 10 years. We at CHOP, try our best to give patients the highest quality healthcare. As part of the promise to care for them, we keep information about their health private to comply with HIPAA.

What is confidential? All information about patients is considered private or “confidential”. This includes personal information of the patient such as name, address, age, social security number including the reason for patient sickness, treatment, medications, care giver notes and past medical history. If you reveal any of this information to someone who doesn’t need to know, you have violated a patient’s confidentiality, and you have broken the law.

Do you need to know?Most of the HIPAA is common sense. Just follow the simple “need to know” rule. If you need to see patient information to perform your job, you are allowed to do so. Even doctors and nurses don’t have the right to look at all the information about every patient. For example, a doctor caring for children has no right to look at the medical record of adult patients unless that doctor is helping to care for them.So, before looking at a patient’s health information, ask yourself one simple question, “Do I need to know this to do my job?” If the answer is no, stop. If the answer is yes, you have nothing to worry about.

I could not help overhearingAs you do your day-to-day work, there is no doubt you will overhear private health information. As long as you keep it to yourself, you have nothing to worry about. This information includes the fact that the patient is at the healthcare facility in the first place.

Even the trash is privateTrash cans can trap you into violating HIPAA. Patient information stored on paper or computer disk should never be thrown into an open trashcan, as no one knows who might end up seeing the trash once it leaves the building.

Who’s the boss?We have privacy official to make sure no one breaks the privacy rule. This person is responsible for coming up with the organization’s policies and enforcing them.

For a simplified version of HIPAA, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIPAA

Test for HIPAA beginners1) You are working in the emergency department and see your neighbor has just arrived in labor.

She’s only six months pregnant. Calling her husband to tell him is a violation of HIPAA. True False

2) When are you allowed to repeat private health information that you hear on the job? After you no longer work in the hospital After the patient dies Only if you know the patient won’t mind Only when it’s necessary to do your job

3) Your sister’s friend is having surgery at one of the local hospitals, but she is not sure which one. She wants to send flowers and she asks you to find out whether her friend is at your facility. What should you do?

Tell your sister that you cannot find out for her, but that she can call the information desk and ask whether her friend is staying there.

Search for friend’s name in the computer database. Find a list of patients having surgery and look for the friend’s name. Ask all the nurses whether they have seen your sister’s friend.

4) You are cleaning up at nurses’ station and find an open recycling bin full of paper. You can see names, addresses, and numbers on the paper. What should you do?

Nothing. You can’t be sure the information has anything to do with the patients. Show it to your supervisor in case the information is private patient information. Ask the nurses who work there what information is on the paper. None of the above.

5) What question should you ask yourself before looking at patient information? Would the patient mind if I looked at this? Do I need to know this to do my job? Can anyone see what I am doing? Am I curious?

6) Health care workers can go to jail for selling patient information. True False

7) Doctors are permitted to see all information about every patient. True False

8) Patient information should never be thrown away in an unlocked bin unless it has been shredded or destroyed.

True False

9) If you reveal confidential information to some one who does not need to know it, you are breaking the law.

True False

10) The privacy official enforces HIPAA privacy rules. True False

Print Name: _____________________ Signature: ________________ Date: ________