Home Health & Hospice Week
Is Emailing Blank Forms OK Under HIPAA?
If you’re wondering whether it’s OK under HIPAA to send blank forms to a patient or their caregiver to fill out, listen to one expert.
Question: "Should we just ask the patients whether it’s OK to send them these forms via email and document it somewhere on our files that we’ve gotten a verbal OK to email them?" asks one provider.
Answer: "Yes, I think that would be a reasonable thing to do," answers HIPAA expert Jim Sheldon-Dean with Lewis Creek Systems in Char-lotte, Vt. Since you’d just be sending patients the forms, which are blank, "you’re really not revealing too much in that case," Sheldon-Dean notes. There’s minimal risk involved.
If you just ask the patients for their permission to email and document that they’ve agreed to that, then you can go ahead with the emails and you have that documentation, Sheldon-Dean says. "That seems like a reasonable use."
Home Health & Hospice Week
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