Are Poison Control Centers Considered Health Care Providers Under HIPAA?
10/22/03 ** HIPAAlive! From Phoenix Health Systems/HIPAAdvisory.com ** Question: Are poison control centers considered health care providers under HIPAA and can they share treatment information with hospitals without a BA Agreement? Response: I realize the preamble does not hold as much weight as the actual rule, but HHS addressed poison control centers in the preamble in the treatment section. “We note that poison control centers are health care providers for purposes of this rule. We consider the counseling and follow-up consultations provided by poison control centers with individual providers regarding patient outcomes to be treatment. Therefore, poison control centers and other health care providers can share protected health information about the treatment of an individual without a business associate contract.” I found it in Section III of the Final Privacy Rule Preamble “Section-by-Section Discussion of Comments” the topics are listed alphabetically and, sure enough, within the
