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Release of Info--HIPAA



Try this FAQ from the Dept of Health and Human Services.
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/finalmaster.html
It discusses the "Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information," the set of rules that were recommended in HIPAA.

The FAQ says that those who must comply with the standards are "health plans,
health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers who conduct certain
financial and administrative transactions electronically."  Though with changes as recent as last week, who knows.

I also found a little while ago--in 164.502 (f) and 164.512 (i) in the Standards--some wording that might imply an exception for "uses and disclosure for research purposes," as long as the entity maintaining the information takes "certain verification measures prior to release."  After the patient is dead, it seems there would be very few uses that wouldn't be for research purposes, especially if the "maintaining entity" is an archival repository.

Not being a lawyer, it's pretty foolish even to try interpretation, though.  Has anyone heard anything about research purposes from someone credible?

--
Jennifer Jacobs, University Archivist
 UCI Libraries
 Special Collections and Archives
 P.O. Box 19557
 University of California
 Irvine, CA 92623-9557
 Phone (949) 824-7193
 Fax (949) 824-2472
 Email jljacobs@uci.edu

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