User Guide — Managing Patient Privacy

At the top of the patient Quickview page, up to three privacy checkboxes may appear:

• Notice Given
• Release of Info on File
• Assignment of Benefits on File

The number of checkboxes that appears depends on the "Number of Patient Privacy Checkboxes" practice setting. If the patient has any privacy notes and requests, they appear below the checkboxes.

The privacy options are administered using the Privacy Information page (click the Manage Privacy link on the patient Quickview to display this page). The Privacy Information page provides a summary of patient privacy issues and links for all HIPAA-mandated privacy-related requests and information.

Note: If a patient turned 18 since her last visit, a message appears at the top of the Quickview and Check-in pages to inform you that the patient has turned 18 and may need to re-sign your HIPAA consent forms.

According to federal regulations (HIPAA), providers must provide their Notice of Privacy Practices to all patients no later than the date of the first service delivery. In some cases, payers require additional patient or insured subscriber signatures to process and pay claims.

According to federal regulations (HIPAA), providers must obtain authorizations or consents from patients before releasing protected health information to outside parties for reasons other than treatment, payment, and healthcare operations unless specifically allowed by government regulations (for example, law enforcement and public health efforts).

In this section of the Privacy Information page, you can view, create, and update patient privacy notes, including:

• Restrictions — Create a request for a record access restriction, record sharing restriction, reporting restriction, or a confidential communication method.
• Requests — Log a patient request for record amendment, a copy of the medical record, or an accounting of disclosures.
• Complaints — Log a patient complaint concerning HIPAA Privacy Rule violations.
• Disclosures — Record disclosures of protected health information.

You can use the Privacy Notes List page to generate a worklist of patient privacy notes. This page can function as your worklist to review open requests, complaints, and so forth. You can filter the list by category, type, status, request date, review date, and create date.

If your organization uses provider groups, see athenaEnterprise and Patient Privacy for information about HIPAA, using the Common Patient Index, and viewing enterprise-wide patient balances.