Back to Risk Management & Patient Safety Articles
Printer Friendly
By now, everyone has read, seen, or at least heard about the stories of pop star, Michael Jackson’s former nurse. She has been talking to various media outlets about the requests that Mr. Jackson made to her for the drug Diprivan. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a mandatory regulation for the privacy of patients. The recent media coverage warrants this reminder that HIPAA rules apply to nurses, physicians and all medical staff; and the obligations of HIPAA survive a patient’s death.
We must also remember that even though a person is a celebrity, he or she still has a right for their medical care to be kept private. The status of the patient in the public-eye does not change a provider’s obligations to adhere to HIPAA guidelines. Summarily, a deceased patient’s executor or administrator (someone who is legally authorized to act on the behalf of the deceased patient) is the only person who can release the privacy rights of a patient.
