(no subject)

[holzman_tweed]

This could be fun to watch...

According to Information Security magazine, the Texas Attorney General has ruled that Texas' more lax privacy laws trump HIPPA, meaning that Texas heatlth care providers and organizations can release patient data without express consent.

I can already smell the fresh tinge of lawsuit in the air. I'm sure Federal Marshalls will be likewise impressed with the all-importance of Texas State law.

Comments

[salsuginous.livejournal.com]

That's odd. I know that if a state law has tighter privacy laws than HIPAA, then the state law trumps HIPAA. Didn't know states were going to blow off HIPAA.

But don't even get me started on what I think about HIPAA, what i think about the lack of clarity of the law, how it is negatively impacting patients' families from accessing information, how hospitals and other health care facilities have been implementing just insane rules because of the fear of getting sued (or worse--landing in jail), how it's a total bear to try to get research done now. Don't get me started on how the lovely little HIPAA form that is mandatory to attach to all of my consent forms nullifies any/all work I've done to try to provide information/clarity on a 3rd grade reading level for participants who may be interested in our research and basically makes it sound like we are going to just giving away all of their health information to random people on the street.

HIPAA was an idea that I loved in theory but am sorely disappointed in the reality. it really doesn't provide any of the protection I was hoping it would and does a great job of adding 500 feet of red tape everywhere.

bah. :)

[liana]

I'm not thrilled with the chaos either, but give providers a little more time to figure HIPAA out. Remember, the exact wording wasn't finalized until quite late in the game, especially for something this big. Even OBRA in 1990 was a bit of a mess for about a year or so, and that was a relatively simple piece of legislation. (It's the one that mandates "patient counseling" for prescriptions, and is the reason you get a little printout when you pick up meds at a pharmacy.)