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                              328-Are hospitals or other health care providers required to provide their notices to patients they treat in an emergency


    

    

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Are hospitals or other health care providers required to provide their notices to patients they treat in an emergency?








  
  
    

  
      





Answer:
Hospitals and other covered health care providers with a direct treatment relationship with individuals are not required to provide their notices to patients at the time they are providing emergency treatment. In these situations, the HIPAA Privacy Rule requires only that providers give patients a notice when it is practical to do so after the emergency situation has ended. In addition, where notice is delayed by an emergency treatment situation, the Privacy Rule does not require that providers make a good faith effort to obtain the patient’s written acknowledgment of receipt of the notice.
Date Created: 12/20/2002

                    
  


Content created by Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Content last reviewed July 26, 2013Back to top
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