I received this from Ted Pearson:
From “World Privacy Forum – Part I Learning about HIPAA”
http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/hipaa/HipaaGuidePart1.html“7. Do Privacy Rights Survive Death?
Yes. Under HIPAA, a patient's privacy rights survive death and last
forever. We are not sure how much sense that makes, but that is what the
rule provides. A deceased patient's legally authorized executor or
administrator, or a person who is otherwise legally authorized to act on the
behalf of the deceased patient or patient's estate, can exercise the privacy
rights of a patient.
“It is important to know that disclosures for treatment do not require
consent or authorization of the patient or the patient's representative.
That means, for example, if information about the deceased patient is
relevant to the care of the surviving spouse, the information can be
disclosed to the health care provider for the surviving spouse.
“Privacy for the dead can be especially messy when questions arise in the
period after death and before anyone is formally authorized to act for the
patient or the patient's estate. For many individuals, there may be no
formal legal process following death. These questions are often best
resolved with more attention to common sense and less attention to legal
formalities. A doctor is more likely to know the best thing to do, and a
lawyer is more likely to get in the way. The authority in the HIPAA rule
that permits disclosure of information to a patient's caregiver may also
help resolve problems during that period.”
Ted
Tell me if I'm on the wrong track. The way I am reading this is, once the
HIPAA form is signed by the patient ( inmate ) the person named as executor
or administrator, has the right to their medical information during the
persons life, and after death, unless the Dr. deems it necessary to do any
procedure that would extend that persons life, without consulting the
administrator. Right or Wrong
Terry think you’re right.
However, the authorization form used by the IDOC contains two check boxes
regarding expiration:
“This authorization will expire (complete one):
45 days from date of signature;
Upon the occurrence of the following event (must relate to the individual or
purpose of the authorization):” with space for the event to be written in.
So technically it could depend on which box was checked, and if it was the
second one, what was written in there.
If the first box was checked and Billy died within the 45 days I’d argue
that it covers all records up to and following his death. On the other
hand, if they allowed the 45 days to expire without sending any records, I’d
argue that they must send everything, that they screwed this up just like
they screw up everything else and that it’s not your problem.
If the form Billy signed is not the IDOC form but is more universal, then
you should be able to have all the records.
You might end up having to have a lawyer go to bat on this one. But it’s a
lot better to try to deal with these things without lawyers, if possible,
because once a lawyer gets into something it becomes an “issue” and everyone
freezes up.
If you would like to scan and email me the authorization you have I can
unofficially ask one of their attorneys about it, and she may be able to
break it loose without making a big deal out of it. If they know they’re
going to lose ultimately, sometimes they’ll just give in without a struggle.
Ted
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