Legal and practical healthcare information.
Many physicians find credit cards to be the easiest way of accepting payment, and some will even keep their patient’s credit card information on file in case a patient fails to pay their bill. What many of these physicians do not realize, however, is that electronically storing a patient’s credit card information opens them up …
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By Rose J. Willis The required compliance dates for revising business associate agreements (“BAA”) between covered entities and business associates, or business associates with subcontractors, respectively, to reflect the new requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) “omnibus” regulations issued on January 17th, 2013 (the “Final Rules”) are approaching. As a reminder, …
By Scott Roberts, Esq. In Michigan, the physician-patient privilege is a statutory privilege enacted to “protect the confidential nature of the physician-patient relationship.” While this privilege previously only extended to prevent physicians from disclosing patient information, a new Michigan Court of Appeals case seems to have changed this. In Meier v. Awaad, No. 310808 (Mich. …
Continue reading “Meier v Awaad: Extending the Physician-Patient Privilege Beyond Physicians”
By Scott Roberts When conducting medical research, a researcher may want to obtain health information to use as data in a study. For observational studies, clinical data and treatment information can be especially useful, particularly when large amounts of clinical data are aggregated together. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as “HIPAA,” …
By Tatiana Melnik The Rutland Herald of Vermont, reports that Kathy Tatro was sentenced in a Bennington, Vermont criminal court on Friday, November 23, 2012, to a suspended jail term of 6 to 12 months, 2 years of probation, 160 hours of community service, a $2,000 fine, and ordered to write a letter of apology …
By Tatiana Melnik In early September 2012, the Eleventh Circuit decided Resnick v. AvMed, Inc., reversing, in part, a motion to dismiss, and thereby permitting a class action against AvMed, a Florida health plan provider, that arose from the theft of unencrypted information to move forward. Specifically, the Court ruled that: (1) plaintiffs claiming actual …