STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum

HIPAA Survey

• Date:   Tue, 10 Jun 2003 07:54:38 -0400
• To:   sthc-l@library.ucla.edu, alhhs-l@mail.upstate.edu
• From:   Stephen E. Novak <sen13@columbia.edu>
• Subject:   HIPAA Survey
• Message-ID:   3EE5C6FE.EEC0F37E@columbia.edu

Please excuse the cross-posting.

As many of you know, compliance with the Privacy Rule of the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is of great
concern to archivists whose repositories hold records of health care.
Those of us who are custodians of records with Protected Health
Information (PHI) have many questions regarding the effect of the
Privacy Rule on scholarly research using these records. Currently, there
is much conflicting information and misinformation about HIPAA, adding
to the confusion even further.

The Science, Technology and Health Care Roundtable of the Society of
American Archivists has approached the leadership of SAA and the
Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences (ALHHS)
and asked if they would make known our concerns to the Dept of Health
and Human Services and ask for clarifications of the Privacy Rule as it
applies to scholarly research using PHI.  Their response has been
positive and the Roundtable has been asked to write a letter outlining
our issues.

To do so we are canvassing our members for their questions on this
topic.  We would appreciate hearing from you.  We may not be able to
include every one of your concerns in our letter but your responses will
help us determine which are the most widespread and pressing.

Please send your comments to Steve Novak at sen13@columbia.edu.  We
would like to receive them by July 3.

Many thanks for your attention to this. We hope that our efforts will
help reduce the confusion and anxiety that HIPAA has created in our
community.

Lisa Mix
Co-Chair, Science, Technology and Health Care Roundtable
Society of American Archivists

Stephen E. Novak
Steering Committee member
Science, Technology and Health Care Roundtable