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Home Health & Hospice Week

HIPAA:

Just Because Lawyers Request Records Doesn't Mean You Must Send Them

Published on Wed Nov 10, 2010

3 steps help you avoid violating HIPAA laws in these situations. Picture this: An attorney working on a legal case calls you and asks you to immediately send him a Medicare patient's medical records that are related to the case. He even follows up the call with a fax demanding the records. Do you send them? Absolutely not. First, you must ensure that the attorney has authorization from the patient to release the personal health information (PHI), or has other legal documentation proving that you can send the information. "Covered entities and business associates should exercise great caution when responding to such requests," advises Abner E. Weintraub, president of The HIPAA Group Inc., a HIPAA training and consulting firm in Orlando, Fla. "The best advice here is to take your time, investigate, and be sure of what you are doing," he says. "Law firms are often intentionally intimidating in their [...]
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