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STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum
[Previous Posting] [Next Posting] Re: HIPAA Covered Entities & Access Appeals
Shelia, The instructions and background material in the Privacy Board application materials explain the criteria which our Privacy Board uses in evaluating cases. http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/forms/D2%20Waiver%2004.pdf Our Privacy Board is made up of faculty from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, the head Archivist, and 2 non Hopkins lawyers. HIPAA requires that there be at least one outside member on the Privacy Board. Lawyers for the Hospital and University also serve as ex officio advisors. I also serve as Archives staff to the Privacy Board, conduct risk assessments of the cases, and present them at the meetings. I don't get a vote. If a Privacy Board application is granted then the researcher is allowed access to PHI for research purposes. They must have a plan to protect the PHI and they are not allowed to publish or otherwise re-disclose PHI without the authorization from the subject of the PHI or his/her personal representative. We do have a simpler review process for lower risk research requests that only involve access to PHI of decedents. http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/forms/B%20Decedents%202004.pdf These requests are reviewed by myself or the Archivist. Any requests involving access to patient related records we send to the Privacy Board, even if all subjects are deceased. The definition of research that we use comes from HIPAA and states that research is a systematic investigation that contributes to generalizable knowledge. Genealogy doesn't qualify here as research since the results could not be considered generalizable to a larger population. We require authorization from the personal representative which usually is not a problem for genealogists. Depending on the nature of a biographical study and materials requested, we may also require authorization from the personal representative before the biographer is allowed access to holdings and the biographer is always required to seek permission to publish or re-disclose PHI. I'm happy to answer any other questions. Phoebe Evans Letocha Collections Management Archivist Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions 410-735-6785 pletocha@jhmi.edu http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu ____________________________________________________________ STHC-L - Science, Technology, and Health Care Archives Forum STHC-L@lists.ucla.edu http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sthc-l STHC-L@lists.ucla.edu STHC-L Archives -- Main Index STHC-L Archives -- 2007 Message Index |