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61 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, September 12, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 13, 2003 Medical transcriptionist Carol Quinones retrieves a patient�s records from thousands of files in storage at Providence Medford Medical Center. Provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act put new controls on medical information. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven A private practice New law imposes tighter security restrictions onbasic medical information By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Get ready for a big surge of medical paperwork. A new federal law takes effect Monday that requires all medical offices to take strong measures to keep your health records out of the wrong hands. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires doctors to tell you how they handle information about your personal health. HIPAA also requires them to obtain your signature to prove that they told you about their "privacy practices." "Everybody is going to have to deal with this," said Carmen Borovac, office manager for Medford dermatologist David Trask. "Whether they go to a doctor, or a hospital or a dentist or a pharmacy. Advertisement "It’s all to protect the patient’s privacy," Borovac said. "Most of (the requirements) are things we’ve basically been doing all along — except now it’s all government mandated." Congress passed HIPAA in 1996 primarily to streamline the flow of medical information among physicians, insurers and hospitals. Provisions to protect medical records were included after several egregious lapses in confidentiality made national news. Except for the new forms, most people won’t notice the new record-keeping and privacy procedures, said Deborah Elliott, director of marketing and community relations for Providence Medford Medical Center. Physicians, hospitals and pharmacies will continue to exchange patient information as they have in the past. "The law doesn’t affect patients’ care," Elliott said. "What it does affect is their medical information. There will be a little more paperwork to read if they choose to read it." Some offices already have begun giving patients their notice of privacy practices. All will be required to distribute them as of Monday. Hospitals and physicians’ offices needed years to prepare for the change. Computer programs had to be reconfigured to make them HIPAA-compliant; privacy policies had to be written; medical workers had to be trained to understand the new law. The total cost nationally to comply with HIPAA has been estimated at $30 billion to $100 billion dollars. Locally, some medical practices have probably spent as much as $100,000 to comply, said Lois Shanks, administrator of Medford’s OB/GYN Center. "It all depends on the size of the office," Shanks said. "Some have probably spent as little as $3,000." Asante Health System spent $40,000 just in employee training, said Andrea Jablonski, director of marketing and community relations. Some medical offices have hired extra staff just to keep up with the new privacy paperwork. "People are already at the saturation point," Shanks said. "They can’t handle any more work." The law prompted many medical offices to adopt new procedures to improve patient privacy. Providence Medford Medical Center, for example, now gives each patient a number when they register for outpatient procedures such as CT scans. "We had to think about how to deal with patient privacy in a public waiting room," Elliott said. The law clarifies patients’ right to privacy while hospitalized. People always have had the option to request anonymity in a hospital, but they had to ask for it. Now every hospital must ask every patient whether he or she wants to be admitted anonymously. Patients who request anonymity "will become invisible to the outside world," said Asante’s Jablonski. That means anyone who calls the hospital for information about them — even a close relative or family member — would be told, "The hospital has no information about that patient." "It’s not that the hospitals are being uncooperative," said Providence’s Elliott. "It’s that the hospitals are going out of their way to meet the patient’s wishes." The law also gives patients new rights to look at their medical records. Patients can petition to have their records amended if they find information they believe to be erroneous. Each medical office has a HIPAA "compliance officer" who will review complaints and evaluate amendment requests. Penalties for violating the law can range as high as $250,000 and include jail time of up to 10 years. Enforcement will be driven by complaints, said Paul Frisch, staff attorney for the Oregon Medical Association. Frisch said the focus on any investigation is likely to be on compliance with the law, not punishment, "but God help anyone who sells (medical) data." Starting Monday, hospitals and physicians will see how the law plays out in the real world. After years of preparation, most medical offices feel like they’re ready. Shanks, the OB clinic administrator, encouraged anyone with a doctor’s appointment to be ready for the new paperwork. "Plan to come to your appointment on time," she said, "or 15 minutes early — just to keep the paperwork flowing." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities