Question

You are the ROI manager and are presented with the situations below.  

1. A mother calls wanting her daughter's immunization records. Her daughter has just been enrolled in school at County West Elementary and they need proof that she was immunized. (What information do you need from the mother and/or school? Where can you release the records? How would you release the records e.g. fax, electronic, mail, or e-mail?)
2. A daughter of a deceased patient presents to the ROI office and requests a copy of her father's records. She was the sole caregiver for her father while he was in the hospital. The patient had no other children and his wife had died in 2015. (Can you release the records to the daughter? What information does she need to provide? Does your state allow organizations to release information to the "next of kin"?, Does HIPAA allow for information to be shared with the caregiver? Does this change after the patient dies?)
3. A man calls claiming to be a patient of the hospital (John Smith DOB: 05/01/1984), he says that he is a diabetic and needs his records faxed to his house. He says that he is light-headed and will need to go to the ER soon, and he needs to take his records with him. (What information do you need from him? Is it ok to fax the records to his house? Where should you send the information?)

Answer 1

Case 1 Mother looking out for information of her daughter

Mother is a legal authority, and this is a routine information hence, she needs a proof to prove that along with a Witness on the form , requesting the information.

Records can be release to the mother or to the university if authorization is submitted.

Records can be released by mail, fax pickup and However for privacy concerns email can be used only after checking the validity and explaining the concerns to the mother. Since the mother has called, rto needs to validate the email address. hence would require authorization form by the parent to be submitted where the email address is mentioned.

Case 2 Daughter of deceased

She was a caregiver when he was in hospital and hence the hospital healthcare processing organization knows her, hence one can release the information. She has the legal standing and would even require to submit the court documents to prove the same.

Case 3 patient himself call.

purpose is for continuity of care and hence he needs to send in the authorization form by mail or fax or email. giving the details whether the mode in which he needs the records, if he mentions the fax and the number , you can send it.

Note: you need records related to diabetics , that's what he needs to mention on the form.