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Consumer Backlash Avoided with Short HIPAA Privacy Notices; Companies Adopt Privacy Notice Template Developed by Hunton & Williams' Center for Information Policy Leadership.


Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 2003

Under HIPAA's Privacy Rule, April 14, 2003 is the deadline when health care organizations must inform patients of their privacy rights, but how effective the notices will be remains to be seen.

Most patients will get multi-page notices that are dense with legal jargon jargon, pejorative term applied to speech or writing that is considered meaningless, unintelligible, or ugly. In one sense the term is applied to the special language of a profession, which may be unnecessarily complicated, e.g., "medical jargon. , and which observers expect will too often wind up in the trash, tossed by confused consumers. But some patients will also receive a short version of the lengthy, legally-required notice, which will, in many cases, follow a template (1) A pre-designed document or data file formatted for common purposes such as a fax, invoice or business letter. If the document contains an automated process, such as a word processing macro or spreadsheet formula, then the programming is already written and embedded in the  developed by Hunton & Williams' Center for Information Policy Leadership.

"We created a highlights notice that is easy-to-read and graphically designed so health care consumers can readily spot the topic of greatest interest to them," said Lisa Sotto, partner at Hunton & Williams, and a privacy expert. The Highlights Notice Template, developed by the Hunton & Williams' Center for Information Policy Leadership, summarizes, in an easy-to-follow format, key points as to how personal health information is used and how consumers can control certain uses of their medical records.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191) Also known as the "Kennedy-Kassebaum Act," this U.S. law protects employees' health insurance coverage when they change or lose their jobs (Title I) and provides standards for patient health,  requires health care providers, including hospitals, group health plans, pharmacists This is a list of notable pharmacists.
  • Dora Akunyili, Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control of Nigeria
  • Charles Alderton (1857 - 1941), American inventor the soft drink Dr Pepper
  • George F.
, etc., to disseminate dis·sem·i·nate  
v. dis·sem·i·nat·ed, dis·sem·i·nat·ing, dis·sem·i·nates

v.tr.
1. To scatter widely, as in sowing seed.

2.
 notices to explain the organization's privacy practices. The regulations require the notices to contain more than 30 elements, ensuring that notices will be lengthy and hard to understand for the average consumer. While the Highlights Notice cannot legally substitute for the complete notice, it can serve as an easy-to-read guide to the longer notice, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 Sotto.

A number of health care entities, including Kodak's group health plans, Emory University Emory University (ĕm`ərē), near Atlanta, Ga.; coeducational; United Methodist; chartered as Emory College 1836, opened 1837 at Oxford. It became Emory Univ. in 1915 and in 1919 moved to Atlanta.  Hospitals, the DC Hospital Association, the University of Maryland University of Maryland can refer to:
  • University of Maryland, College Park, a research-extensive and flagship university; when the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to this school
, Howard University Howard University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; with federal support. It was founded in 1867 by Gen. Oliver O. Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau, to provide education for newly emancipated slaves. A normal and preparatory department was opened the same year.  Hospital, and many others have adopted or are considering the approach developed by Lisa Sotto of Hunton & Williams and the health care entities that participated in a project she led to develop the template. "The notice is written in plain language so the average reader can understand the organization's privacy practices, and beneath that is the multi-page document needed to comply with the law," she said. "Our template - the only one of its kind - is an effective model that consumers, health care organizations and government officials have embraced, but unfortunately, most organizations will send out dense notices and threaten the trust between patient and provider."

Sotto and Marty Abrams, Executive Director of the Center, helped financial companies create a similar type of short notice in response to the Gramm Leach Bliley Act.

Contact Martha or Eden at 212.840.1661 for a sample Highlight Notice template.

To view a typical multi-page HIPAA notice visit www.hipaadvisory.com/action/privacy/AHAPrivacynotice.doc
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Publication:Business Wire
Date:Apr 9, 2003
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