HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996) addresses protection of confidential patient medical information, reducing insurance fraud, and facilitating insurance portability when changing jobs.

Level I and II fieldwork sites require students to be HIPAA trained prior to entering the clinic. The CCRI Rehab Health Department requires students to complete HIPAA when entering the program and just before going out on level II fieldwork. Some sites may require students complete additional site-specific training.

Any student violating HIPAA guidelines will be subjected to a remedial plan of action typically developed in collaboration between the site and the school. The plan will identify specific areas of understanding the student is lacking, a plan of correction (i.e. additional HIPAA training, reflective writing about how HIPAA influences practice in that site, research about HIPAA standards), and possible placement termination should the infraction be viewed as severe.  

Students must be vigilant in where they store notes regarding patients. Official files must be locked when not in use. Informal notes should not include identifiable information and stored safely. They should not be left out in the open if non-staff and other patients move through the area. All non-essential notes and “working charts” should be shredded when no longer needed (i.e. patient discharge, end of student placement).

When students are completing fieldwork-related reflection or assignments they must not include the following information:

• Account numbers or any identifying number, characteristic, or code.
• Biometric identifiers (i.e. finger and voice prints)
• Certificate and/or license numbers
• Dates - all, including date of birth, admission and discharge dates
• Device identifiers and their serial numbers
• E-mail addresses
• Fax numbers
• Full face photographic images
• Health plan beneficiary numbers
• Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers
• Location - includes anything smaller than a state, such as street address
• Medical record numbers
• Name
• Social security number
• Telephone numbers
• VIN numbers and license plate numbers
• Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs)

Students can include the following information in fieldwork reflection or assignments:

• Age - “Over 90” must be used in related cases
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Marital Status

For more information about HIPAA go to:
AOTA 
US Dept of Health and Human Services

SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE

Discuss 5 specific actions you routinely engage in to protect patient information in the clinical setting you are in.

Provide 3 other examples of how you have seen other disciplines adhere to HIPAA guidelines.

Read the article linked below and share one "take-away" related to this current application to HIPPA regulation.

Las Vegas hospitals must follow regular HIPAA privacy rule  By Rachel Z. Arndt  | October 2, 2017