HIPAA Attorney in Pensacola, Florida
In any medical scenario, it is important to consider the safety and privacy of your own medical record. Having this shared with different institutions can lead to emotional and mental damage. This concern can lead to a person losing their job, personal relationships, and private life. This is where the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) comes into play.
The HIPAA is a form which helps protect your medical information from improper disclosure or unauthorized release. Given that a healthcare provider such as a hospital is your main caretaker during this medical concern, they have the responsibility to take care not only of your health care, but also your medical privacy. But a lot of times, these institutions neglect their duty and don’t take the steps necessary to uphold the privacy rule to protect your information. The HIPAA acts as your way of ensuring that your rights will be covered in these situations.
Why do I need a HIPAA Attorney in Florida?
In many cases, our clients have noted that they were unsure if they were a victim in health privacy cases. If you feel like your health privacy rights were stepped on, or if the medical institution you dealt with doesn’t have the proper privacy practices, consulting with an experienced health lawyer should help you understand your rights.
Given that each state in the United States has a different statute regarding this, clients in Pensacola should consider hiring a Florida HIPAA lawyer so that they are given a specific understanding of what the HIPAA covers. If you feel that your health care details were leaked illegally or shared with unscrupulous entities, make sure that you seek help with attorneys who will listen to your concerns and guide you through the process. Our attorneys at Brightwell Law are always willing to lend a hand. Send us a message to schedule a consultation with our law firm.
What is an HIPAA?
HIPAA or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is an act that indicates which parties can access and receive patients’ medical info and health declarations. The law also gives everyone the right to obtain a duplicate of your health documents. This also allows you to make changes and hide specific parts of your information.
In the Florida statute, The most important aspect of the HIPAA that you should look out for is the HIPAA Release Form. This is an informed consent form that denotes you are allowing your info to be shared. A signed copy of this form is needed by your health care provider in order to share your information with other parties such as other medical institutions or your insurance provider. Without this, they are prohibited from sharing any of your details in public records.
Having this signed release form alongside your estate plan can allow your chosen agent or health care surrogate to manage your health and medical records to help make better decisions about your estate when you can’t personally do it.
In some cases, different Institutions can request for your information without following the HIPAA procedure. This means that they are allowed to request for your health documents without your signed form, depending on the circumstances:
- Law Enforcement Official (with regards to certain personal injury cases)
- Child Abuse Office (with regards to child and vulnerable adult abuse cases)
- Government Official (notifying the public regarding the records of particular public health concern like a pandemic or a large-scale disease)
When is an HIPAA Form Requested by the Hospital?
The HIPAA is usually requested by different medical professionals when they need to release records regarding your medical state to different parties. The list includes some but not all cases where an HIPAA form is required:
- Distribution of health records to other parties without a medical relation (ie. records shared with insurance companies)
- Distribution of protected health information for fund-raising or marketing studies
- Distribution of health records to a research organization
- Distribution of protected health information for psychotherapy concerns
- Distribution of health records for processes that involves any type of payment
What should a valid HIPAA Release Form Contain?
Given that the HIPAA is a law-mandated process, there are required parts that each HIPAA Form should have. Omission of any part from an HIPAA may lead to several legal repercussions if brought to a court. The parts include:
- Full description of information to be disseminated.
- The name of the individual or entity whose personal information is going to be disclosed.
- The names of the different parties (institutions, groups of people) that are going to use said medical information.
- The specific usage of the requested personal medical record
- A date of expiry / validity period to indicate when the health records should be destroyed OR when the release form is to be considered invalid.
- Signature and Date of Submission
What Statements Must be in the HIPAA Release Form?
In order to protect both the medical professionals and the individual whose health info is going to be obtained, Florida law dictates that the following clauses are integral to the validity of a HIPAA release form.
- Right to Revoke the Authorization. This allows the individual to revoke their authorization to their records if need be. While there might be some exceptions to this, having this clause helps ensure that you have control even after submitting the HIPAA.
- There should be no medical treatment or eligibility of payment or benefits attached to the approval of an HIPAA. This allows the user to make a fair judgment when disclosing their information. Some exceptions include:
- Allowance for a research-related treatment
- Allowance for a specific health plan
- Capability for the records authorized to be redisclosed again.
Lastly, all parts of the HIPAA should be in plain English, so that all parties can understand the form’s contents.
Given the specific contents of the document, it is possible that an individual can miss a specific part needed for the form to be valid. Having an adept HIPAA attorney to act as your legal representative in filling out and signing the release form can help you go over the document properly and note all of the specific statements.
Talk to our HIPAA Lawyers Today!
Given that many of us give our utmost respect to our medical provider, we must also hold them in high regard. Given that it is their duty to uphold our proper care, we should be mindful of the practices that these institutions’ practices. These include proper disclosure and handling of medical records and healthcare concerns.
Our Florida department of HIPAA attorneys are adept in handling your concerns about your medical release form. We are also capable of handling your concerns in the following practice areas: estate planning, family law, as well as probate law.
In the end, our goal as a law office is to allow you to focus on your wellbeing and other more important concerns. With our legal services and proper legal advice, we hope that your civil rights are upheld. We are always willing to listen to your concerns. Schedule your consultation today!
