HIPAA Privacy Rule

Do you worry about overheard conversations at your medical practice?  Do your doctors feel they need to speak with patients and nursing staff in hushed tones?  If so, perhaps you should be concerned about violating the privacy rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA").

The Privacy Rule

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA") was enacted by the federal government in 1996.  Part of this act addressed confidentiality of patient insurance and medical records.  This "Privacy Rule," which went into effect on April 14, 2003, addresses the use and dissemination of patient health information through electronic form as well as in print or verbal communication.  Organizations covered by the Privacy Rule include doctor's offices, dental offices, hospitals, pharmacies, and other health care and insurance providers.  The Privacy Rule states that covered entities must adopt reasonable safeguards to protect their patient's medical information.

Articulation Index

Although there are no specified speech privacy criteria currently defined in the HIPAA law, the industry has adopted a standard referred to as the Articulation Index.  Articulation Index is a measure of the intelligibility of speech that takes into account the reduction in sound pressure level afforded by a partition in question, the ambient noise level, and various weighting factors.  The Articulation Index of a space in question can be measured and compared to industry standard values that define levels of acceptability.  An Articulation Index of .05 or less is typically used as an indication that a reasonable effort has been made to protect patient information.

Impact of the Law

Since passage of the Privacy Rule, many health care providers are finding that their facility is not living up to the speech privacy requirements.  Other health care providers do not know if their facility is in compliance or not.  If a complaint is proven to be valid, the Department of Health and Human Services may impose a civil penalty of $100 per failure to comply with the Privacy Rule requirements (maximum of $25,000 per year).

What Can Be Done?

It is time to address your facility's speech privacy concerns.  CFA can visit your facility to conduct a noise survey and measure the Articulation Index to determine if your facility exhibits a reasonable accommodation toward acoustical privacy.  If not, CFA can recommend ways to improve acoustical privacy.  Please contact us for a thorough site visit and a serious analysis of your situation.

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Copyright © 2001-2008 Coffeen Fricke & Associates, Inc.
Last modified: 06/04/2008