Rachel, if such an agreement was executed inappropriately or unnecessarily it should be terminated. The BAA should have term and termination provisions included. Most term/termination provisions allow for written termination with appropriate advance notice to the appropriate party. This would be the mechanism that should enable this party to terminate this or any other agreement.
Rachel Rachel Foerster Rachel Foerster & Associates, Ltd. Voice: 847-872-8070 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: rachelmcass [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 9:44 AM To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List Subject: Unnecessary BAAs Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do when a Business Associate Agreement has been signed unnecessarily? For instance, a nursing facility has signed a BAA with a durable medical equipment provider, naming the nursing facility as the BA. As both entities are considered health care providers, and the nursing facility has been determined not to be providing services to the durable medical equipment provider, it is not necessary for the nursing facility to sign the BAA naming the facility as the BA. The facility did this, and now has a contractual obligation to do a number of things unnecessarily. For instance, the terms of the agreement state that the facility will notify the medical equipment provider within X number of days of a breach of privacy, notify when accounting for an accountable disclosure, etc. This being the case, the agreement requires that the facility do such things as notify the organization every time it has a state inspection (which occurs no less than annually), because that is an accountable disclosure. This seems absolutely unnecessary; the facility does not provide any services to the other entity. If anything, it would be the other way around. What is the best way to terminate or modify these provisions? Can they just cancel the agreement, even though it has the termination provisions required by the Privacy Rule (return or destruction of PHI, etc.) What if the other entity is adverse to terminating or modifying the BAA? Has anyone else encountered this? On a completely unrelated note, I just had one of my previous health care providers (who is a covered entity, I received a NPP from them) leave a message on my answering machine informing me that their office is providing services to someone else with my name. They apparently haven't been checking birth dates, or other information, and they think they may have accidentally billed my insurance. They want my help in investigating/fixing this situation. Seems to me that there may have been a way to approach this without telling me that someone else named Rachel Cass is receiving services from them; anyone agree? (No, I really don't intend to contact OCR on this; just think it is an interesting Privacy scenario). It also make me wonder if another Rachel Cass has been told that I have been treated by that provider. Thanks - Rachel M. Cass (319) 430-6591 [EMAIL PROTECTED] IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail, including attachments, may be confidential or privileged communication intended for the exclusive use of the person or entity to which it is addressed. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, the reader is hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you think that you have received this e-mail in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail of the error and then delete this e-mail immediately. --- 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
