Hospitalized Medical Staff Members: Reconciling Peer Review and HIPAA
Last week, Health Care partner Lowell C. Brown published an article in Bloomberg BNA’s Health Law Report that examines what hospital and medical staff leaders should do when a staff member is hospitalized with signs of impairment.
In the article, Mr. Brown writes that, “Your justifiable instincts will tell you to investigate and then to take action, if necessary, to protect patients; but what about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)? Can traditional peer review co-exist with that law’s still evolving but demanding requirements? Fortunately, some answers are emerging, and peer reviewers who are careful can indeed reconcile their patient protection duties with their HIPAA privacy obligations.”
To read the Bloomberg BNA article, click here.
If you have questions about peer review and HIPAA, please contact the professional listed at the right, or the Arent Fox attorney who regularly handles your legal matters.
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