Mr. Astle -- I am an attorney who listened to the OCR chief speak at the
WEDI SNIP HIPAA conference last week. Mr. Campanelli and his colleague
from CMS Mr. Nachimson each emphasized that the Privacy and Security
rules are intended to be implemented flexibly, scalably, and reasonably.
The Privacy Rule itself does not prescribe any specific format for
posting the NPP beyond requiring that the posting be clear and prominent
and allow people to read it. I think that the approach that Mr. Fairley
suggested is a reasonable approach that complies with the Privacy Rule,
particularly if it is small waiting room. See the 12.03.02 OCR guidance:
Q. Are health care providers required by the HIPAA Privacy Rule to post
their entire notice at their facility or may they post just a brief
description of the notice?
A. Covered health care providers that maintain an office or other
physical site where they provide health care directly to individuals are
required to post their entire notice at the facility in a clear and
prominent location. The Privacy Rule, however, does not prescribe any
specific format for the posted notice, just that it include the same
information that is distributed directly to the individual. Covered
health care providers have discretion to
design the posted notice in a manner that works best for their facility,
which may be to simply post a copy of the pages of the notice that is
provided directly to individuals.
In answer to Mr Fairley's first question, it's my experience that
covered entities are providing the title of a contact/privacy official
(and phone number)rather than a name as the person filling that title
can change. This is consistent with the Privacy Rule, § 164.520:
(vii) Contact. The notice must contain
the name, or title, and telephone number of a person or office to
contact for further information as required by § 164.530(a)(1)(ii)
[referencing the complaint contact who may also be the privacy
official].
The policies and procedures, of course, actually must name an
individual.
Best regards, Dave Ermer
Gordon & Barnett
Attorneys at Law
1133 21st St., NW, Suite 450
Washington, DC 20036
202-833-3400 ext 3009 (voice)
202-223-0120 (fax)
www.gordon-barnett.com
>>> "Astle, Jay C." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 03/13/03 14:46 PM >>>
Mr. Fairley,
in response to your question #2:
I am not an attorney, but I would advise that any time you are
taking an action that you realize is probably against the intent of the
law,
even if it may successfully be argued to technically meet the
requirements
of the law, is bad policy. Especially if there is an alternative that
can
cost-effectively meet the requirement.
I have worked with clients who have taken their proposal, also
approximately
6 pages, and had it turned into a poster format. It contained all the
same
information, and even in the same order, but headings, fonts, and column
sizes were modified to make a convenient & professional looking poster.
This option may or may not solve your space issue, but it will clearly
meet
the posting requirement in a manner which is not "trashy."
Regards,
Jay Astle
HIPAA Consultant
Unisys Corporation
703-556-5946
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 12:39 PM
To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List
Subject: named Privacy officer on NPP, posting
I have two quick questions for the group:
1. When your Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) says to contact the
Privacy
Officer for such and such, does the Privacy Officer need to be a NAMED
individual or can you just list the title of the contact person (e.g.,
the
Privacy Officer)?
2. Since the law calls for a "posting" of the NPP, can we display a
stapled copy of our 6 page NPP in a locked bulletin board (which would
then
just show the first page of the NPP) and then have a sign next to this
"displayed" NPP that tells the inquisitive patient where in our office
they
can get a complete copy of the NPP if they wish? I realize that this
proposal probably goes against the intent of this provision of the law
but
would it be technically be sufficient to meet the requirements of this
provision?
Reasons behind such a proposal are 1. Space is a problem, 2. Hanging
up a
6-8 page NPP looks trashy. 3. All patient's will be personally handed
the
NPP so what's the point of posting it anyway? 4. And we would be
"posting"
it, it's just that you could not read all the pages of the posted
version!
Thanks for all advice provided.
Rich Fairley
---
The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The
discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the
individual
participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI
Board
of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion,
post
your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at
http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for
commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products
and
services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal
disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time.
You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at
http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the
same as
the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe
form at http://subscribe.wedi.org
---
The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The
discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the
individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of
the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an
official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at
http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for
commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products
and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for
personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time.
You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at
http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the
same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the
Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org
---
The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions
on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do
not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If
you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues
Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for
commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services.
They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or
unprofessional communication at any time.
You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at
http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the
address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at
http://subscribe.wedi.org
