Opinion ID: 2283325
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: HIPAA Generally

Text: This Court's examination of HIPAA's privacy rule reviews the text of the regulations mindful of the intent of Congress in directing the Secretary to issue rules and regulations to implement the HIPAA privacy rule. In HIPAA, Congress directed the Secretary to promulgate rules and regulations designed to ensure the privacy of patients' medical information. 42 U.S.C.A. § 1320d-2(d)(2)(A); see also Crenshaw v. MONY Life Ins. Co., 318 F.Supp.2d 1015, 1028 (S.D.Cal.2004); Moreland v. Austin, 284 Ga. 730, 670 S.E.2d 68, 70 (2008) (HIPAA's goal is to protect a patient's health information). With the overriding governing principle of patient privacy, the Secretary did, in fact, create regulations prohibiting health care providers from disclosing protected health information, whether oral or recorded in any form or medium, unless medical providers comply with a narrow list of exceptions separately itemized by the Secretary elsewhere in the Secretary's regulatory scheme. The HIPAA regulations draw no distinction between formal versus informal disclosures and, instead, broadly prohibit all disclosures in the absence of a specifically enumerated exception to this general rule of prohibition. Specifically, the Secretary defined protected health information as: [A]ny information, whether oral or recorded in any form or medium, that: (1) Is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, public health authority, employer, life insurer, school or university, or health care clearinghouse; and (2) Relates to the past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individual; the provision of health care to an individual; or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to an individual. 45 C.F.R. § 160.103 (emphasis added). This federal regulation's use of the term oral communication clearly includes ex parte oral communications with a physician; likewise, it encompasses health information that is part of a written medical record or the physician's memory of his treatment of the patient. By its text, HIPAA promotes a renewed awareness of, or emphasis upon, the principle of patient privacy. Further, by its text, HIPAA prohibits physicians from engaging in an ex parte oral disclosure of a patient's protected health information unless an express exception applies.