This module examines the importance of proper management of patient health care records within the context of HIPAA. The student will learn that to ensure a patient health care record management system complies with HIPPA regulations, staff and managers should examine a variety of factors including the physical layout of the health care facility or office, verbal communications inside and outside of the organization’s physical facility and the security of employee work stations.

Nephrology technologists and technicians are among the many professionals who are responsible for ensuring patient health care records are treated properly since they handle patient data and patient health care records on a daily basis.

Planners, content specialists and feedback personnel have declared that there is no conflict of interest in the preparation and content of this module. There is no commercial support for or endorsement of products in this module.

• Explain health care records management
• Define HIPAA compliance team.
• Identify members of the HIPAA compliance team.
• Identify 4 factors that a HIPAA compliance team can examine to potentially improve a covered entity’s privacy practices.
• Identify 4 media of communication of patient information that should be examined to improve a covered entity’s privacy practices.
• Describe potential problems with maintaining confidentiality of PHI with verbal communications outside the workplace.
• Describe the importance of the role of health care personnel in creating an organizational culture that values and practices good patient health care records management.

Bibliography
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Pub.L.104-191

Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, 65 FR 82462.
65 FR 53182.
45 CFR Part 160.
45 CFR Part 164.

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U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Health Care Financing Administration. HCFA policy for disclosure for individually identifiable information. Program Memorandum. Change Request 1156, Transmittal AB-0-46, Washington, D.C.; June 2000.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Fact sheet: Protecting the privacy of patients’ health information. Washington, D.C.; April 14, 2003.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health. Protecting Personal Health Information in Research: Understanding the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Washington, D.C.; April 14, 2003.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. OCR privacy brief: Summary of the HIPAA privacy rule. Washington, D.C.; May 2003.

Vinn NE. The emergence of consumer-driven health care. California Family Physician. Autumn 1999: 8.

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Witherspoon, PD. “Using new communication technologies in organizations: The leader as champion of communication innovations.” In: Communicating leadership: An organizational perspective. Boston: Allyn and Bacon; 1997; 169-192.

Webliography
Research and HIPAA
American Academy of Family Physicians. Update on HIPAA for Family Physicians. The New HIPAA Privacy Rule and Research Implications. Available at: http://www.aafp.org/online/etc/medialib/aafp_org/documents/prac_mgt/hipaa/implications.Par.0001.File.tmp/
HIPAA_Privacy_Rule_Research.pdf. Accessed 11/16/2005.

National Institutes of Health (NIH). Home Page. Available at: http://www.nih.gov. Accessed April 12, 2007.

General Resources
California HealthCare Foundation. Home Page. Available at: http://www.chcf.org. Accessed April 12, 2007.