Home Health & Hospice Week
Labs' HIPAA Exemptions Nixed In Recent Rule
Having trouble getting certain lab reports from your patients’ doctors? Now you have a new option. A final rule has eliminated the HIPAA exemption for laboratories in providing patients access to their lab reports, so that patients or their designated representative can gain direct access to the patient’s completed laboratory test reports. The Department of Health and Human Services published the final rule in the Feb. 3 Federal Register.
The final rule amends the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) regulations and eliminates the exception under the HIPAA Privacy Rule to an individual’s right to access his PHI when it’s held by a CLIA-certified or CLIA-exempt laboratory, according to HHS. “While patients can continue to get access to their laboratory test reports from their doctors, these changes give patients a new option to obtain their test reports directly from the laboratory while maintaining strong protections for patients’ privacy,” HHS states. Now patients, patients’ designees, and patients’ personal representatives can obtain a copy of the patient’s PHI, including an electronic copy, with limited exceptions.
The rule was effective on April 7, with a compliance deadline of Oct. 6. To read the entire final rule, visit www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/02/06/2014-02280/clia-program-and-hipaaprivacy-rule-patients-access-to-test-reports.
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