Handling Client Information Answers

Choose whether the information listed below is protected health information (PHI) or not PHI.A photocopy of a patient’s health insurance identification card ✔ PHInot PHIA patient’s lab results ✔ PHInot PHIA scrap of paper carried to the sandwich shop to remind you to get three sandwiches; one of the sandwiches is for a patient, but it doesn’t say which one ✔ not PHIPHIA letter from a specific patient’s doctor stating that the patient is not allowed to have coffee and why ✔ PHInot PHIA scanned-in version of a patient’s health insurance identification card ✔ PHInot PHIA list stating the names of towns in one county in which people have come down with the flu ✔ not PHIPHI

True or false: The worker should discuss the patient’s test results even though everyone is still in the room. If the patient did not want everyone to hear the news, he would have asked them to leave.true ✔ falseTrue or false: The patient’s test results are not protected health information. true✔ false

True or false: The patient’s diagnosis and treatment are pieces of protected health information. ✔ truefalseTrue or false: Details of the patient’s diagnosis and treatment are covered by the privacy rules of HIPAA. ✔ truefalseWhat should you say to your coworker? ✔ ”It’s really not appropriate for us to discuss this.”“I’ll bet she caught it from so-and-so.”“I don’t care what she has, I think she’s a very nice person.”

True or false: The patient’s blood pressure reading is protected health information. ✔ truefalse

True or false: The fact that this patient also has diabetes and requires a low-sodium diet is protected health information. ✔ truefalse

Decide whether the healthcare professional in each scenario has done the correct or incorrect thing with regard to properly obtaining, handling, or distributing a patient’s personal health information. She leaves a company laptop containing patients’ protected health information in her car overnight. correct✔ incorrectShe discusses a patient’s personal information with an unidentified relative or friend who just left the patient’s room. correct✔ incorrectA patient discovers that his last name is spelled incorrectly on his medical record. The patient writes a letter to your facility in order to correct the error and includes documentation of the correct spelling. An office worker corrects the error. ✔ correctincorrect

Decide whether the healthcare professional in each scenario has done the correct or incorrect thing with regard to properly obtaining, handling, or distributing a patient’s personal health information. He ensures that a patient could understand all the forms necessary at admission, and that all forms were filled out and signed properly. ✔ correctincorrectHe allows an elderly patient’s daughter, who is named on the patient’s forms as a personal representative, to pick up a prescription for the patient. ✔ correctincorrectHe allows a twelve-year-old patient’s father to pick up the patient’s prescription. ✔ correctincorrectHe permits a patient’s teenaged daughter, who is not listed as a personal representative, to pick up her father’s prescription even though the father is outside in the car. correct✔ incorrect

Decide whether the healthcare professional in each scenario has done the correct or incorrect thing with regard to properly obtaining, handling, or distributing a patient’s personal health information. You are meeting a new patient for the first time. You ask whether she prefers to be called Barbara, Mrs. Sanchez, or some other name. She says she actually prefers her nickname, Bunny, which is what everyone calls her. You then call her “Bunny” for the rest of her stay. ✔ correctincorrectA patient with persistent diarrhea is found to have an infection that is unusual in the United States. It turns out that he recently returned from a trip to Central America, where he suspects he ate raw produce that was washed in contaminated water. The doctor jots all of this information down in the patient’s medical record. The information is considered protected health information. ✔ correctincorrectSix months later, the doctor described in the previous scenario reports information on the patient’s symptoms, diagnosis, travel to Central America, and treatment outcome to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is studying outbreaks of this infection. ✔ correctincorrect