HIPAA specifically authorizes health care providers to release workers’ health information "to the extent necessary to comply with [state] laws relating to [workers’ comp programs]." Therefore, physicians can disclose workers‘comp patients’ information for treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes without patient authorization. HIPAA also allows physicians to disclose the information to their patients’ employers, as required by state law.

For the most part, physicians must still follow HIPAA’s "minimum necessary disclosure" rule when disclosing workers’ comp patients’ health information. If the disclosure is specifically required by law, however, physicians may release the information without consideration of the minimum necessary rule.

Disclosures that are not made for payment purposes must still be logged as required by HIPAA. This includes disclosures made for subpoenas, court orders, fee reviews, independent medical reviews, impairment evaluations, and similar testing. HIPAA also requires physicians to keep a log of all such disclosures, including those related to workers’ comp claims, and provide the log to patients or their personal representatives who request it. For more information on this requirement, including a form that physicians can use to log disclosures, see CMA ON-CALL document #1122, "Accounting of Disclosures." For more information on workers’ comp and the HIPAA privacy rule, see document #1930, "Workers’ Compensation: Treating Physicians’ Obligations & Reports."

ON-CALL documents are available free to members at CMA’s members-only website. Nonmembers can purchase ON-CALL documents for $2 per page from CMA’s online bookstore.

Since workers’ comp carriers are not covered entities under HIPAA, they are not required to switch to uniform electronic transactions. As a result, it appears most carriers will not change the way they process claims and physicians should continue to submit them as they are currently doing.

For more on HIPAA’s electronic transactions rule, which goes into effect October 16, see "Don’t Let Next HIPAA Deadline Disrupt Your Cash Flow." Additional information is available in the HIPAA Help section at http://www.calphys.org.