There are occasions when I have to turn delinquent accounts over to a collection agency. Can I send copies of patients medical records to the agency for this purpose?
On the subject of billing, the Privacy Rule states that a covered entity is permitted, but not required, to use and disclose protected health information, without an individual’s authorization, for the following purposes or situations: Treatment, Payment, Health Care Operations. A covered entity may use and disclose protected health information for its own treatment, payment, and health care operations activities. A covered entity also may disclose protected health information for the treatment activities of any health care provider, the payment activities of another covered entity and of any health care provider, or the health care operations of another covered entity involving either quality or competency assurance activities or fraud and abuse detection and compliance activities, if both covered entities have or had a relationship with the individual and the protected health information pertains to the relationship. See OCR “Treatment, Payment, Health Care Operations” Guidance. Trea
Related Questions
- There are occasions when I have to turn delinquent accounts over to a collection agency. Can I send copies of patients medical records to the agency for this purpose?
- Why should a healthcare organization assign delinquent accounts to an external collection agency rather than processing them internally?
- What is the difference between Patient Accounts and Medical Records?
