Practice Management Alert

Question: Our dermatology office occasionally distributes free samples to patients. Our billing firm, which is not in-house, recently told us that this practice is not compliant with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Do we need to stop?

Minnesota Subscriber

Answer: No. “In face-to-face encounters, the HIPAA Privacy Rule allows covered entities to give or discuss products or services, even when not health-related, to patients without a prior authorization,” according to the U.S. Department for Human and Health Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR). “This exception prevents unnecessary intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship.

“Physicians may give out free pharmaceutical samples, regardless of their value. Similarly, hospitals may give infant supplies to new mothers. Moreover, the face-to-face exception would allow providers to leave general circulation materials in their offices for patients to pick up during office visits,” the OCR says.

Still, make sure you check state laws to see whether providing free samples from a clinician’s office is subject to different regulations. But according to the OCR, you should be OK in continuing to hand out free samples of products to patients.