HIPAA scenarios

Directions for HIPAA activity: Find a partner Read a summary of the HIPAA act at the Center for Disease Control website accessible from: HIPAAfacts.htmhttp:// HIPAAfacts.htm Answer the questions on the worksheet titled HIPAA Questions. DO NOT PRINT THIS OUT. PUT IT ON YOUR OWN PAPER!!!! Read the 8 scenarios in this presentation. For each presentation answer these questions (ON YOUR OWN PAPER!!!): – What was the PHI? – Was the Public Health Official in compliance with HIPAA? Why or why not? – Was HIPAA violated? Why or why not?

What is confidentiality?

Scenario #1 A 32 year old immigrant from a patriarchal country is giving birth in Indianapolis. As she is delivering the baby, she tearfully confesses to her doctor that this is her 4 th child and she simply cannot handle any more children. She tells the doctor that her husband refuses to use contraception or allow her to and she begs her doctor to tie her tubes and not tell her husband. The doctor complies.

Scenario #2 An 18-year-old high school senior at RHS gets pregnant. She does not want to have the child and her best friend takes her to a doctor’s office for an abortion. A few days later her mother reads a text about the abortion on her phone and angrily calls the doctor’s office, demanding more information. The receptionist confirms that her daughter visited the office for an abortion.

Scenario #3 A mother ed her son’s teacher about his history of seizures. Months later, the teacher replied to the to tell the mother about discipline problems. Communication eventually became contentious. The teacher forwarded the conversation to her best friend, a teacher at the same school. The information about the boy’s seizures was way at the bottom of the strain.

Scenario #4 A 33 year old woman visited her gynecologist for a routine STD screening. The doctor called back a week later to report the results. The husband answered the phone and the doctor shared the results with the husband.

Scenario #5 A teacher at RHS decides that he needs to attend an in-patient drug rehabilitation program. He tells his employer that he needs time off “for medical reasons.” The employer requires a FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) form from the employee’s doctor. The doctor fills it out, including information about the patient’s history with drug use.

Scenario #6 Two nurses who work at Reid are shopping together at WalMart after work. As they walk around they talk about their patient Barbara. Although she’s in the hospital for diabetes treatment, they discuss the fact that her crazy “bug-eyes” mean she probably has an overactive thyroid (Graves’ disease). They wonder aloud whether to tell Barbara their suspicions.

Answer #7 Two doctors are having lunch together in the Physician Dining Room at Reid Hospital. As they eat they talk about the man with the terrible butt abscesses that they recently treated. The joke about how bad they smelled and about the fact that the juice that squirted out when they punctured one of the abscesses hit the nurse right in the face.

Scenario #8 A 14-year-old freshman from Seton is pregnant and visits Gyn Limited. Her mother comes with her and comes into the doctor’s office for the visit. She asks the doctor many questions about the due date, the heart rate of the baby, methods of delivery, genetic risks, etc. The doctor answers all of the mother’s questions.