Handling Medical Privacy For Psychiatric Care

A facility is going to offer psychiatric services torecords. If state laws do cover records
certain residents with mental health issues ormaintained by the facility, it must specify additional
psychiatric diagnoses. These services will berequirements for releasing the records.
provided by psychiatrists and psychiatric nurseAlso see to it that HIPAA itself provides special
practitioners and will cover individual counseling andprotection for psychotherapy notes. For instance,
group therapy. Will the facility need to have morethe authorization for release of psychotherapy
HIPAA security related specifically to thenotes cannot be combined with a general
psychiatric services?authorization for release of other types of
At the outset, decide in consultation with therecords. However, the HIPAA definition of
psychiatric professionals involved what recordspsychotherapy is restricted and applies only to
the facility will maintain, and what records only thenotes by mental health professional documenting
psychiatric professional will maintain. This distinctionor analyzing the contents of conversation during a
is vital because the facility is responsible undercounseling session that are maintained separately
HIPAA only for those records maintained by thefrom the medical record.
facility and the psychiatric professionals will beRemember that a psychotherapy note under
responsible for complying with HIPAA regardingHIPAA is not inclusive of summaries of diagnoses,
the records they maintain.functional status, treatment plans, symptoms, etc.
The facility, if it will maintain records of this typeFor more on this and other healthcare IT news
of treatment, should consult state laws. Manydoing the rounds, sign up for a newsletter and
states have laws that provide more protectionsee the difference it brings to your practice.
than HIPAA regarding certain types of psychiatric