Confidentiality And Scope Of Practice

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Patient confidentiality and adhering to my scope of practice is essential to my success in the healthcare field. The project scenario states a patient left my office after receiving an outpatient procedure. I am a medical assistant and have discovered that he left without his prescriptions and after care instructions. Since these are of extreme importance, I pull his chart to look at his contact information. I see he has a signed HIPAA release form and adequate patient contact information. While I am perusing his information, the phone rings prompting me to answer. Another patient asks me if she can have a prescription for pain medication. The physician and the office manager are both at lunch, and I am required to make a decision. I pull this patients chart and see that she has been prescribed pain medication in the past so I feel comfortable ordering a refill prescription for her. Later I learn she suffered cardiac arrest due to a medication interaction. 1. Under HIPAA, are you legally allowed to view this patient’s medical information? Why or why not? The patient’s file contained a signed HIPAA release form which provides me with certain permissions to act on his behalf. Under HIPAA, I am allowed to do this under the fourth permission as Fregman (2009) states, “For use in treatment of patients, payment, or other healthcare operations (TPO)” (p. 233). Also, since I’ve received training in HIPAA procedures, I know how the patient wishes to be contacted, either by phone or by mail and the appropriate phone number or address. A phone message could be left with permission asking the client to phone me at a specific phone number for an important matter. Or I could send the same request by mail. 2. In this case, how would you be able to correct your error and provide the missing documents to the patient while still protecting patient confidentiality under HIPAA?

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