When necessary, yes. Healthcare providers will need to take steps to ensure that protected health information is safeguarded and that oral communications between patient and practitioner are not compromised. In some environments compliance with this standard will require healthcare providers to place patient records in locking cabinets, situate workstations so passersby cannot see diagnostic or billing information, situate triage cubicles away from the waiting area, or implement the use of shredders to destroy discarded PHI. Since the standard for compliance with the Privacy Rule is "minimum necessary," some practitioners will need to change aspects of their offices to comply.

False. The new HIPAA compliance standard does not disallow the submission of paper-based claims or use of paper-based remittances. It does, however, require that the transaction standards be followed whenever transactions are conducted electronically.

Chiropractors and physical therapists performing covered transactions are considered to be "covered entities" and therefore need to comply with HIPAA regulation.

HIPAA was advanced by the Clinton Administration, and passed by a Republican Congress in 1996. When George W. Bush was elected, many political observers believed that his Administration would seek to eliminate HIPAA in the face of opposition from the healthcare lobby. In July 2001, Secretary Tommy Thompson of Department of Health and Human Services, clarified certain aspects of the Privacy Rule, and made a number of statements in which he supported its basic ideals. In March 2002, the Bush Administration modified the Privacy Rule's consent requirement, but left in place many of its patient privacy standards, implementation schedule, and oversight provisions.

It is permissible to use the Internet to transmit confidential patient information, so long as an acceptable method of encryption is used to protect confidentiality, and appropriate authentication procedures are used to ensure the identity of the sender and receiver.

HIPAA protects oral communications between patients and healthcare providers by establishing guidelines for appropriate modes of communication. Reasonable safeguards should include speaking quietly when discussing a patient's condition in a waiting room or other public area, and avoiding use of the patients' names in public hallways and elevators. Protection of patient confidentiality is an important practice for many healthcare professionals; covered entities can build upon those codes of conduct to develop the reasonable safeguards required by the Privacy Rule without compromising the important communication that takes place between healthcare professionals and their patients.

Appointment reminder cards are not consistent with the "minimum necessary" standard of the Privacy Rule, since it would be easy for someone other than the intended recipient to get access to protected health information. A possible solution is to send appointment reminders in envelopes.

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