|
|
|
HIPAA and Reminder Postcards
The HIPAA Privacy Rules permits health care providers to
communicate with patients at their homes regarding their health care.
Appointment reminders are considered part of treatment, not marketing, and,
therefore, can be sent without an authorization. If you plan to send appointment
reminders to your patients you should include a statement about it in your
Notice of Privacy Practices. If a patient requests that you communicate with
him/her in a confidential manner you must accommodate that request, if
reasonable. For example, a request to receive mailings in a closed envelope
rather than by postcard is a reasonable request that should be accommodated.
We believe that you have three options for sending
reminders:*
The most conservative option for ensuring
patient privacy is to use a Folding Postcard. The Folding Postcards, however,
are somewhat more expensive than Standard Postcards and require additional
postage. Folding Postcards require a 39 cent stamp; Postcards require a 24 cent
stamp.
Another option is to put your Reminder Postcard in an Envelope.
This saves on the additional cost of folding postcards, but still requires 37
cent postage, and the additional cost of the envelope. An advantage to this
option is that the entire back of the postcard is available for any information
you wish printed. If you continue using our standard postcards your patients
will still have an attractive postcard to keep that reminds them of a scheduled
appointment or the need to call for one.
The third option is to continue using Standard Postcards, but take
steps to reasonably safeguard your patient's privacy. Review the wording on the
card to limit the disclosure of PHI to the minimum necessary to accomplish the
intended purpose. For example, you can include the doctor's name on the return
address without including a specialty, such as "Infertility" or "Oncology" that
gives out sensitive information. You can discretely remind a patient that it is
time to call for an appointment, without indicating that she is due for a pap
test or mammogram.
Call us to discuss how United
Reminders can help to meet your HIPAA needs
* This information is the opinion of United Reminders based on our
review of the regulations and OCR HIPAA Privacy Guidance, and should not be
construed as legal advice.
For further information visit HIPAA.Research Alot.com An Extensive Resource site for everything to do with HIPAA. Full of newsletters, articles,
links and other resources - ALL FREE - in one easy to navigate site to save
time and money.
|
