Please encourage your department s clinical faculty and staff to review this update. Health Information Privacy Regulations Released President Clinton released new federal privacy regulations December 20 that mandate increased protection of the confidentiality of health information. As originally proposed last year, the rules would have affected only electronic records. Administration officials report that under the rules, patients could sign a one-time consent form on their first visit to a doctor allowing disclosures for routine matters like billing and treatment. But they would have to explicitly authorize most other uses of their records.
Patients also gain the right to inspect and request corrections to their records.
Employers are barred from perusing medical information about their workers unless it's directly related to providing health care. And, in a change won by industry, the administration deleted a provision that could have opened the door for patients to sue if their records were improperly released. This means slightly higher Medicare payments for critical care. CPT changed the definition of Care Plan Oversight codes 99375 and 99378, and Medicare will not pay these codes in 2001. Be sure to document the length of stay.