Hipaa Texas
hipaa texas
Is it legal in Texas for a hospital to release patient info to press without permission?
My 5yr old daughter was recently involved in a school bus accident. A reporter tried to get info on all students involved from the DPS who referred them to the school district. The ISD refused to comment. the reporter finally got all student names, ages, and patient status from “hospital spokesperson and nurse supervisors”. I thought HIPAA made this illegal. Even if not illegal under HIPAA, don’t they need parental permission (which we did not give)?
Even under HIPAA, hospitals can give out what is considered to be ‘directory information’, but only under specific circumstances.
The following deals specifically with the media…….
Directory Information can be disclosed when: –
1) The reporter asks for the person by name;
2) The patient has not restricted directory information;
3) The entity has provided its privacy policy to the patient, orally or in writing; and
4) The patient has not opted out of directory
Remember that the name and age are also available from the accident report, which is public record. If you do not specifically restrict information, then the directory information can be given.
Directory Information includes a patient’s:
1) Name
2) Location in facility; and
3) Condition in general terms that does not communicate specific medical information
As a rule, most hospitals will not release the names etc of a patient, but that is a local policy rather than law. I can certainly appreciate you being upset, but there was nothing illegal about what they did. Unprofessional? Yes. Illegal? No.
Texas Collection Agency
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