10 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

HIPAA: Patient Privacy Standards 

Confidentiality of patient information is an ethical standard that students must maintain throughout their education.

Students are expected to protect patient information by following HIPAA and other hospital guidelines related to patient information security. HIPAA guidelines must be followed when using personal social media.  Students will refrain from discussing clinical experiences via Facebook, Twitter, text, etc.

As part of their compliance requirements, students are expected to complete annual training and education in HIPAA and Mobile Device security. These training certificates are saved in the student’s file and updated yearly.

https://compliance.iu.edu/compliance-areas/hipaa/training.html

In addition to the annual HIPAA training, students are required to sign a form before starting clinical courses, which confirms their understanding that they are not to discuss patient/hospital information (even if it is not a patient they x-rayed) at any time through social media and that doing so is a HIPAA violation and grounds for immediate program dismissal.

Students may only access patient information or examinations if the information is needed for educational purposes. Students requiring patient information or examination images must respect the privacy of the patient and remove patient names from such information and images. Additionally, patient ID numbers must be removed from all images and information unless the faculty member specifically indicates that numbers are to remain.

Students should only discuss patients and patient information regarding their education.

Please look at Indiana University’s Health Sciences Compliance Plan for detailed information about the Health Sciences Compliance Policy. https://compliance.iu.edu/compliance-areas/hipaa/training.html

Violations of Patient Privacy

Students who fail to comply with the patient privacy policy will be disciplined on an individual basis.  Action may include reprimand, probation, removal from a specific hospital, and course failure and/or program dismissal depending on the severity of the situation.