Dentalgram June 2002 HIPAA- Oral communications HIPAA is not intended to prohibit health-care providers from talking to each other and to their patients, recognizes that providers understand the sensitivity of oral information, and acknowledges the importance of oral communications occurring freely and quickly in treatment settings. The privacy rule contains provisions requiring covered entities to implement reasonable safeguards that reflect their particular circumstances and exempting treatment disclosures from certain requirements. These are intended to ensure that providers’ primary consideration is the appropriate treatment of their patients. Under the guidance, the following practices would be permissible, if reasonable precautions are taken to minimize the chance of inadvertent disclosures to others who may be nearby (such as using lower voices and talking apart): • Health-care professionals may discuss a patient’s condition over the phone with the patient, a provider, or a family member; • A health-care professional may discuss lab test results with a patient or other provider in a joint treatment area, and; • Health-care professionals may discuss a patient’s condition during training rounds in an academic or training institution. For example, the Privacy Rule does not require the following types of structural or systems changes: • Private rooms • Soundproofing of rooms • Encryption of wireless or other emergency medical radio communications, which can be intercepted by scanners • Encryption of telephone systems   University | Medical_Center | LLU&MC_home | Search | Employment | News_&_events | Academics | Our_mission | Admissions | Registration | Research | Alumni | Student_resources All contents copyright © 2001 Loma Linda University. All rights reserved. Revised June 26, 2002 Send comments and questions to webmaster@univ.llu.edu  URL: http://www.llu.edu