Emergency Situations: Preparedness, Planning, and Response
Emergency Situations: Preparedness, Planning, and Response
Guidance from the Office for Civil Rights
18292
From the OCR: The Privacy Rule protects individually identifiable health information from unauthorized or impermissible uses and disclosures. The Rule is carefully designed to protect the privacy of health information, while allowing important health care communications to occur. These pages address the release of protected health information for planning or response activities in emergency situations. In addition, please view the Civil Rights Emergency Preparedness page to learn how nondiscrimination laws apply during an emergency.
Limited Waiver of HIPAA Sanctions and Penalties During Declared Emergency
Limited Waiver of HIPAA Sanctions and Penalties During Declared Emergency
Guidance from the Office for Civil Rights
19893
From the OCR: Severe disasters – such as Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria – impose additional challenges on health care providers. Often questions arise about the ability of entities covered by the HIPAA regulations to share information, including with friends and family, public health officials, and emergency personnel. As summarized in more detail below, the HIPAA Privacy Rule...