The Right to Access Ruckus

Protect Your Providers, Patients and Your Bottom Line

Right to access versus authorization what’s the difference?

This session will illuminate the misconceptions between requiring a HIPAA-compliant authorization and receiving an access request under “Right to Access” for releasing patient health information.

The Office of Civil Rights reports hindered access to patient health information is the third most common complaint from patients. to combat this problem, the OCR released additional guidance in 2016 regarding “right to Access” under HIPAA. While this is not new legislation, the information provided by OCR both provided clarity and created more unanswered questions. As a result, some third-parties are interpreting and deploying Right to Access for their own cost benefit, forcing organizations to bleed the costs of producing these records and creating yet another hurdle for today’s overburdened provider.

This session will guide attendees through the nuances of Right to Access versus Authorization for release of information with the assistance of a decision-making matrix, allowing organizations to determine how they can best handle these requests in the future and protect their bottom line.

Attendees will…

• Determine when a request for Patient Health Information could be classified as a Right to Access request versus an Authorization request
• Understand how third-parties may misuse the OCR guidance issued in 2016, and how it may impact your bottom line
• Examine methods for compensation for Right to Access requests as allowed by the OCR guidance
• Create a position on how your organization will handle Right to Access versus Authorization requests