Social media policies should address physician 'spying'

Should clinicians ever search online for information on a patient—even if the intent is to provide better care—or does HIPAA prohibit such actions? Medical associations and similar groups have developed guidelines about the appropriate use of social media, and many HIPAA-covered entities have adopted them. However, these policies need to be expanded to address emerging issues centering on the use of information that patients are posting, according to an AIS Health article, reprinted last week from AIS’ Report on Patient Privacy.

Officials at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) have been silent on the use of social media itself, but OCR will prosecute inappropriate use of protected health information (PHI). Physicians and other medical providers may violate regulations governing the practice of their professions. Art Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, recently brought these issues to light in a column for NBC News, which described a situation where a liver transplant team discovered a Twitter photograph of a patient drinking alcohol—which could disqualify the patient from life-saving surgery.

Source: AIS Health