Does a provider violate confidentiality if other patients can see the names of patients on urine specimens?
The HIPAA regulations are not intended to impede customary and necessary practices, but they are intended to ensure that covered entities use reasonable safeguards to ensure that PHI will be protected. Common sense and a reasonable standard of care are necessary to fulfill the goals of HIPAA. For example, HHS has stated that calling a patient’s name in a waiting room is a customary practice, and is a permissible incidental disclosure, so long as the information disclosed is appropriately limited. The HIPAA Privacy rule explicitly permits the incidental disclosures that may result from this practice, for example, when other patients in a waiting room hear the identity of the person whose name is called.
The HIPAA regulations are not intended to impede customary and necessary practices, but they are intended to ensure that covered entities use reasonable safeguards to ensure that PHI will be protected. Common sense and a reasonable standard of care are necessary to fulfill the goals of HIPAA. For example, HHS has stated that calling a patient’s name in a waiting room is a customary practice, and is a permissible incidental disclosure, so long as the information disclosed is appropriately limited. The HIPAA Privacy rule explicitly permits the incidental disclosures that may result from this practice, for example, when other patients in a waiting room hear the identity of the person whose name is called. However, these incidental disclosures are only permissible when the covered entity has implemented reasonable safeguards and the minimum necessary standard, where appropriate (for example, when using sign-in sheets, the sheets should not display medical information, such as the medical p
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