{"id":260,"date":"2016-06-15T13:26:39","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ws05\/blogportal\/enews\/?p=260"},"modified":"2016-06-15T13:26:39","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:26:39","slug":"accessing-patient-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/2016\/06\/accessing-patient-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessing Patient Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

Accessing Patient Records\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

HIPAA regulations can be confusing and sometimes misunderstood.\u00a0 There is a difference in what you are allowed to access in your role as a health care professional\/employee versus what you may access in your role as a parent, family member, or neighbor.<\/p>\n

As a health care professional and\/or employee, you have access to information which you need to know to perform your job and provide care to your patients.\u00a0 In general this means that you may, without the patient\u2019s permission:<\/p>\n

Discuss the patient\u2019s care with other providers within and outside Cooper, e.g., a Cooper physician discussing a hospital stay with the patient\u2019s primary care physician; or<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Discuss the patient\u2019s care with the patient\u2019s care designee; or<\/li>\n
  2. Provide a copy of the patient\u2019s medical record to a patient\u2019s specialist, nursing home, rehab center, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Actions such as those above are defined under HIPAA as \u201cpurposes of treatment.\u201d \u201cPurposes of treatment\u201d means activities that you are performing as part of your job at Cooper as a professional treating provider.\u00a0Unless you are accessing the patient\u2019s medical record as part of your Cooper job responsibilities to treat the patient, you are NOT accessing the record for purposes of treatment.<\/p>\n

    A HIPAA violation occurs when an employee\u00a0 (physician or otherwise) accesses the medical record of any individual that is not related to the performance of the employee\u2019s job responsibilities (treatment, payment, or operations) UNLESS Cooper has a signed written authorization from the patient authorizing the employee or physician to allow access to their medical record.<\/p>\n

    The following outline summarizes conduct consistent with Cooper policy and HIPAA requirements (acceptable) vs. \u00a0conduct that is not (unacceptable) and the disciplinary process that will follow unacceptable conduct. This policy will apply to all employees including physicians:<\/p>\n

    Accessing your own medical record – Acceptable to access your own medical record.\u00a0\u00a0 (Cooper prefers that in lieu of accessing your own medical record, you set up a MyCooper account which can be accomplished by contacting your PCP office.)<\/p>\n

    Accessing the medical record of an\u00a0adult family member\u00a0living within your household\u00a0WITH\u00a0a signed written authorization (see attachment).\u00a0 The authorization form must be signed prior to the access, scanned into the patient\u2019s Epic medical record and is good for 1 year. \u2013\u00a0Acceptable\u00a0to access the medical record, assuming there is not malicious intent. (Cooper prefers that, in lieu of accessing the patient\u2019s medical record directly, you set up a proxy access in MyCooper, which can be accomplished by contacting the patient\u2019s PCP office).<\/p>\n

    Accessing the medical record of an\u00a0adult family member\u00a0living within your household outside of payment, treatment and operations\u00a0WITHOUT\u00a0a signed written authorization. \u2013\u00a0Unacceptable\u00a0to access the medical record.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. First Offense \u2013 written warning and re-education, assuming there is no malicious intent.<\/li>\n
    2. Second Offense \u2013 termination<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Accessing the medical record of your custodial\u00a0\u00a0minor family member\u00a0under the age of 12\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Acceptable\u00a0to access the medical record, assuming there is no malicious intent.<\/p>\n

      Accessing the medical record of your own\u00a0minor family member\u00a0outside of payment, treatment and operations\u00a0over the age of 12\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Unacceptable.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. First Offense \u2013 written warning and re-education, assuming there is no malicious intent.<\/li>\n
      2. Second Offense \u2013 termination<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Accessing the medical record of\u00a0all other\u00a0adult\u00a0individuals\u00a0WITH\u00a0a signed written authorization (see attachment).\u00a0 The authorization form must be signed prior to the access, scanned into the patient\u2019s Epic medical record and is good for 1 year. \u2013Acceptable\u00a0to access the medical record, assuming there is no malicious intent. (Once again, Cooper prefers that you set up proxy access in MyCooper in lieu of accessing the patient record directly).<\/p>\n

        Accessing the medical record of\u00a0all other\u00a0adult\u00a0individuals\u00a0outside of payment, treatment and operations\u00a0WITHOUT\u00a0a signed written authorization. -Unacceptable\u00a0to access the medical record.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. First Offense \u2013 termination<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Accessing the medical record of\u00a0all other\u00a0minor\u00a0individuals\u00a0outside of payment, treatment and operations. –\u00a0Unacceptable\u00a0to access the medical record.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. First Offense \u2013 termination<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Cooper reserves the right to vary the discipline outlined above based on the existence of mitigating or aggravating circumstances.<\/p>\n

            Please click here for the HIPPA authorization form<\/a><\/p>\n

            These requirements and limits apply to all Cooper personnel and medical staff members.\u00a0 If you have questions, please call Cooper\u2019s Privacy Officer, Phil Curran, at 856.361.1697 or e-mail\u00a0privacyofficer@cooperhealth.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

            ______________________________<\/p>\n

            [1]<\/sup>\u00a0Under N.J. law, minors are treated as adults for the purpose of consent to treatment in certain areas, including pregnancy, venereal disease, HIV, drug and alcohol dependency, and treatment in connection with a sexual assault. Since EPIC does not provide a mechanism to limit access to these protected areas, the expectation is that the employee will communicate with HIM to obtain the medical record so that HIM will have the opportunity to redact any information protected by the statutory prerogatives for minors\u2019 consent to care.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Accessing Patient Records\u00a0 HIPAA regulations can be confusing and sometimes misunderstood.\u00a0 There is a difference in what you are allowed to access in your role…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-did-you-know","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ctd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}