HIPAA Resource Page STHC-ALHHS

STHC

a society of american archivists roundtable

HIPAA Resource Page

Members of the Society of American Archivists Science, Technology & Health Care Roundtable (STHC) and the Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences (ALHHS) have compiled this web site to provide information on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and its impact on historical research in libraries, archives, or other records repositories. The information provided here is not intended to be legal advice. Please contact your institution's legal counsel for clarification on HIPAA and access to records in your repository.

Advocacy

"The Impact of the HIPAA Privacy Rule on the Ability to Access and Utilize Archives": Testimony of Nancy McCall before Panel 3--Decedent Health Information, Subcommittee on Privacy and Confidentiality, National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics
Testimony of Stephen Novak: Panel 3--Decedent Health Information, Subcommittee on Privacy and Confidentiality, National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics

Background Articles

"HIPAA, Health Thyself" by Maria Blackburn in Johns Hopkins Magazine vol. 56 no. 5 (November 2004)

Official Resources

Summary of HIPAA Privacy Rule: Summary prepared by the Office for Civil Rights on the privacy rule of HIPAA. Document is in pdf format
Protecting Personal Health Information in Research: Understanding the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Detailed information about the "Privacy Rule," a federal regulation under HIPAA. Document is in pdf format
Medical Privacy - National Standards to Protect the Privacy of Personal Health Information: Information compiled by the Office for Civil Rights. Includes links to the full-text of the HIPAA statute
HIPAA Privacy Rule: Information for Researchers: This web site, compiled by the National Institutes of Health, provides information on the Privacy Rule for the research community. NIH's Research Repositories, Databases, and the HIPAA Privacy Rule offers useful information for archival repositories
Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information: Overview and FAQ developed by the Department of Health and Human Services
HIPAA Privacy Rule and Public Health: Guidance from CDC and theDepartment of Health and Human Services

National Committee on Vital and health Statistics Subcommittee on Privacy and Confidentiality: Web site of subcommittee that assist the Department of Health and Human Services on implementation of the health information privacy provisions of HIPAA

Other Resources and Tools for Archivists

Access to Health Information of Individuals: Access Policy of the National Library of Medicine adopted after the implimentation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule in April of 2003.The National Library of Medicine is not a covered entity and their policy may be helpful to other repositories who hold personal health information and are not covered entities
Developing the HIPAA-Aware Finding Aid: Poster produced by Nancy McCall and Catherine Arnott Smith and presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists. Authors presented findings from their NHPRC Electronic Records Research Fellowship where they examined examined options for archival reference and research that are HIPAA compliant and illustrated how the Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and EAD might be incorporated to develop a HIPAA-award finding aid
Implications of HIPAA for Archives: Resources maintained by the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions including their

reigstration form, terms of access, and privacy forms for HIPAA.
Covered Entity Decision Support Tool: Tool developed by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide guidance in determining covered entities.
FERPA/HIPAA: Information provided by the University of Miami on the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and HIPAA
HIPAA Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ developed by the American Psychological Association


Myths and Facts about the HIPAA Privacy Rule: General HIPAA information provided by the Health Privacy Project

Updated 19 June 2009