LETTERS TO EDITOR

Dear Editor,

We’re faxing a lot of lab/diagnostic reports and communication sheets to physicians as well as physician medication sheets to pharmacy.  None of these transmissions have fax sheets attached to them.  The HIPAA policy states that all transmissions of patient medical information should have a FAX cover sheet attached and that the cover sheet along with the confirmation of receipt of the FAX must be retained in patient’s medical record.

It all makes sense when you’re faxing information once or twice daily, but to do this for all our patients on daily basis and multiple times... I think that this will create chaos.... Let me know how we should handle this.

Thank you very much.

Dear Privacy Officer,

I can only give you the most protective way to adhere to the regulations.  That approach is to use the fax cover sheets on EVERYTHING.  I realize the practical problem. But consider this:  if you get one complaint because the sensitive documents were sent to a nightclub instead of a lab, you will be defenseless because your normal practice for such reports is to NOT use a fax cover sheet. The government actually prefers for you to make a telephone call in advance of every fax to ensure that the intended recipient is there! Can you imagine doing that?  That makes just using a fax cover sheet seem like a breeze! 

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