Midwives like all health care providers need to provide clients with a HIPAA privacy practices document outlining how they will care for their medical records and other protected data. Some midwives find this topic confusing and frustrating to apply to community-based midwifery – we have taken up the challenge and have created a document that outlines all the pieces of this important national law and how they apply to midwifery clients.

 
Excerpt: “The HIPAA Privacy Rule was first enacted in 2002 with the goal of protecting the confidentiality of patients and their healthcare information, while enabling the flow of patient healthcare information when it is needed. Also known as the “Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information”, the HIPAA Privacy Rule regulates who can have access to Protected Health Information (PHI), the circumstances in which it can be used, and who it can be disclosed to.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule not only applies to healthcare organizations. It applies to any entity that may encounter personal information about a patient that – if it were disclosed to malevolent third party – could present a risk of harm to the patient´s finances or reputation. Therefore “covered entities” include health insurers, healthcare clearing houses, employer-sponsored health plans and third party medical service providers to covered entities – generally known as “Business Associates”.
*This is a digital download. Not a physical printed item.