HIPAA and Protecting Health Information

In 1996, the federal government passed a law known as The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA. The law required the creation of national standards that protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. The Privacy Rule under HIPAA regulates how certain entities, called covered entities, use and disclose certain individually identifiable health information, called protected health information.

At Reserve Health, HIPAA is taken very seriously. Every employee that joins the team is required to attend a training course during their onboarding on the importance of protecting patients’ healthcare information. As an organization, we do not disclose any information to the employer about who is utilizing the services offered.

Under the law of HIPAA, patients utilizing the other services offered to the public safety employees free of charge including behavioral health counseling, physical therapy, health coaching, and exercise physiology are completely private. Solely utilizing these services will not impact an employee’s employment because, under HIPAA, we legally cannot disclose any patient identifiable information.

For the safety of patients, HIPAA standards do allow providers to access outside medical records for the purposes of providing care to the patient. Therefore, there are instances our providers will access medical records for the purposes of interpreting your test results and providing you the best care. Our team will never access medical records that are unrelated to your care.

The only information that is offered to the employer is the clearance document(s) that are also shared with you as the employee. If any further information is ever requested by your employer it would not be shared unless you provide written consent. If you have any further questions on HIPAA as it relates to your patient-sensitive information and/or attending any of the services offered to you, please contact us.

844-477-0422

publicsafetyclt@marathon-health.com.

Source: HHS Website