Last week’s installment (May 19, 2017) discussed everyone should include a HIPAA Release as part of an estate plan in case of emergency. This week’s installment will discuss the importance of a HIPAA Release when someone needs long term care.
As mentioned last week, a HIPAA release allows a person’s health care providers to share private health information with whomever is named in the HIPAA release. Also as discussed last week, the person’s health care providers may not feel able to share such information even with the person’s Health Care Agent until the patient is unable to make decisions for himself/herself. (Remember, the Health Care Agent is the person appointed in a Health Care Power of Attorney to make health care decisions when the patient, called the Principal for purposes of signing the HIPAA Release.) Fortunately, or unfortunately, the privacy requirements also apply to long term care providers.
The applicability of the HIPAA’s privacy requirements to long term care providers is fortunate because we all should be able to keep our health information private and to expect our providers to keep it private as well. It helps us maintain our dignity (even in the face of the frequent indignities that accompany long term care.)
On the other hand, the applicability of HIPAA’s privacy requirements to long term care providers is unfortunate because it sometimes keeps concerned family members out of the loop. In fact, sometimes long term care providers use the privacy requirements to stifle pushy family members. Concerned family members can (and should) ask questions about a loved one’s care. Concerned family members should try to participate in the quarterly care conferences required for people receiving long term care.
However, when the staff gets tired of the family member’s pushiness, the staff can invoke the HIPAA privacy requirement to explain the need to stop sharing information with the family members. A member of management might apologize for the inconvenience and for the inadvertent sharing of information in the past (“until we realized our mistake.”) Nonetheless, the staff might suddenly invoke the privacy requirements to exclude the pushy family member from care conferences and maybe even day-to-day discussions of the loved one’s care and condition. The staff might even invoke the privacy requirement against a Health Care Agent if the Principal (the loved one receiving care) hasn’t been legally deemed incompetent.
The staff’s real goal might not be adherence to the privacy rules but might be extricating themselves from someone they consider a bother. It may not be fair. It may not be right. Yet, caregiving staff has a tough enough job. Shutting down someone they deem an interference might bring them a little relief. (Not everything that we like or want is fair to others.)
So, people who want their family members and or friends to be able to advocate for them in long term care should execute a broad blanket HIPAA release as part of an estate plan.