HIPAA — Too Much of a Good Thing?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is designed to protect the confidentiality of a patient’s health care information.

However, there is growing evidence that HIPAA is often applied in a Draconian nature.

According to Jane Gross, Keeping Patients’ Details Private, Even From Kin, NY Times, July 3, 2007:

[N]ew studies have found that some health care providers apply HIPAA regulations overzealously, leaving family members, caretakers, public health and law enforcement authorities stymied in their efforts to get information.

Experts say many providers do not understand the law, have not trained their staff members to apply it judiciously, or are fearful of the threat of fines and jail terms — although no penalty has been levied in four years.

A former student of mine reported that she could not obtain her own medical information because there was no HIPAA authorization on file.  To solve the problem, she signed a form giving herself authority to see her own records.  The hospital drone was happy and let her have access to her own records.

As a consequence, I always recommend that an estate planning client sign a HIPAA authorization giving access to whatever family members and friends the client would like to have access to his or her medical information.