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HIPAA Toolkit

When do I need patient consent to release protected health information?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of health information, but HIPAA doesn’t prohibit all disclosures of health information. Neither HIPAA nor any Utah law requires a patient’s consent for a provider to disclose the patient’s personal health information to another provider for purposes of treatment, payment, or health care operations.

However, many providers unnecessarily restrict the flow of personal health information, fearing a HIPAA violation. This often results in delayed treatment or other important payment activities or health care operations.

In 2007, stakeholders-including legal counsel from Intermountain Healthcare, Utah Medical Association, Utah Hospital Association, and the University of Utah-met to simplify and publicize a community standard for allowable disclosures for treatment and payment purposes.

This toolkit (569 KB) below is the result of that meeting. We hope it helps your organization to streamline the decision-making process surrounding health information disclosures and, ultimately, leads to faster treatment, payment, and health care operations.