The last topic I want to discuss relates to mental health with respect to the HIPAA rules and regulations. Mental health has been a popular topic in the news. Any time there is a mass shooting there seems to be talk about the lack of mental health issues. Or people ask were there mental issues related to the incident. Or another question you tend to hear relates to actual discussions with the therapist. People may wonder “what I cansay without other people finding out?”. This always made me wonder with regards to HIPAA, what can be released by mental health professionals. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the privacy rule applies to all protected health information. They do make an exception with regards to psychotherapy notes.
“The Privacy Rule defines psychotherapy notes as notes recorded by a health care provider who is a mental health professional documenting or analyzing the contents of a conversation during a private counseling session or a group, joint, or family counseling session and that are separate from the rest of the patient’s medical record.Psychotherapy notes do not include any information about medication prescription and monitoring, counseling session start and stop times, the modalities and frequencies of treatment furnished, or results of clinical tests; nor do they include summaries of diagnosis, functional status, treatment plan, symptoms, prognosis, and progress to date. Psychotherapy notes also do not include any information that is maintained in a patient’s medical record.” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2014)
This means that the mental health provider must get a patient’s permission to release information. There is one exception, and that is in the judgement of the provider whether or not to release information. This would include if a patient is about to harm himself or others or mandatory abuse reporting.
Release without patient approval is solely based on the judgement of the doctor as to whether or not they feel as though the patient is a threat to ones’ self or others.
Something else that comes into play are state laws with regards to PHI information. “The privacy regulations do not preempt state law that is ‘more stringent than’ federal law.” (Malek & Krex, 2002). This is something that mental health care providers must also take into account when dealing with patient notes.
For the most part federal law maintains the same privacy with regards to mental and health records. The difference is with the notes the mental health provider keeps. They contain no info related to medical treatment, just notes about the actual therapy sessions. This should make patients feel safer to open up and talk about their issues, thus allowing them to get the help and care they need without judgement.
References
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2014, February 20). HIPAA Privacy Rule and Sharing Information Related to Mental Health. Retrieved from HHS.gov: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/mental-health/
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