Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Question: How should a medical facility handle employees- access to their own medical records or protected health information (PHI)?

Missouri Subscriber

Answer: Everyone has access rights to their information under HIPAA guidelines. Some facilities with electronic medical records even allow their healthcare provider employees to access their own records with minimal interference from the system.

One way to prevent employees from gaining easy access to their records would be to make them go through the normal access procedures, just like any other patient would have to go through. State regulations can also make accessing their records more difficult for employees.

Example: Some state laws contain a "prior physician review" requirement before accessing PHI. HIPAA would likely -- though not definitely -- pre-empt the state law if that state law imposes a prior physician review requirement. Review your state laws to determine how they approach this requirement.

-- Clinical and coding expertise for You Be the Coder and Reader Questions provided by Neil Busis, MD, chief of the division of neurology and director of the neurodiagnostic laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center at Shadyside, and clinical associate professor in the department of neurology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Laureen Jandroep, OTR, CPC, CCS-P, CPC-H, CCS, CodeRyte Inc. coding analyst and coding review teacher.