- Revenue Cycle Management
- COVID-19
- Diabetes Awareness Month
- Staffing
- Medical Economics® 100th Anniversary
- Coding and documentation
- Business of Endocrinology
- Telehealth
- Physicians Financial News
- Cybersecurity
- Cardiovascular Clinical Consult
- Locum Tenens, brought to you by LocumLife®
- Weight Management
- Business of Women's Health
- EHRs
- Remote Patient Monitoring
- Sponsored Webinars
- Medical Technology
- Billing and collections
- Acute Pain Management
- Exclusive Content
- Value-based Care
- Business of Pediatrics
- Concierge Medicine 2.0 by Castle Connolly Private Health Partners
- Concierge Medicine
- Business of Cardiology
- Implementing the Topcon Ocular Telehealth Platform
- Malpractice
- Influenza
- Sexual Health
- Chronic Conditions
- Technology
- Legal and Policy
- Money
- Opinion
- Vaccines
- Practice Management
- Patient Relations
- Careers
Documenting conversations
Does the HIPAA privacy rule require that I document all oral communications with patients?
Q: Does the HIPAA privacy rule require that I document all oral communications with patients?
A: No. But the rule does require that you keep records of certain discussions. For example, if you tell a public health authority about a patient's communicable disease or a law-enforcement official about a suspected victim of a crime, you must maintain a written record of that conversation.
There are non-HIPAA-related reasons to document oral communications, as well. Let's say you've instructed a patient to take a particular medicine or to avoid a certain behavior. If the patient proves noncompliant, you'd be wise to have a record of that. Indeed, a paper trail that clearly supports your original advice would make any future defense against medical malpractice easier.
