Paul, We are receiving announcements that the carriers will reissue cards minus the SSN. They will instead have a Member ID. Some Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) in California do not have SSNs on their member's cards.
Expect the government plans (Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare (formerly Champus) to be the last to lose the SSN, if at all. Bob Speth, Office Manager Nancy L Orchard, MD 470 Del Norte Avenue Yuba City CA 95991 530.674.4560 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ravina, Paul" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "RBASE-L Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 12:56 PM Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Off Topic HIPAA Question > So HIPAA wants us to be very careful with SSN's.... so what do they do about > all the Health Insurance cards that have your SSN built into their ID > numbers? > > Dr. Razzak, do you have any comments on this HIPAA thing? > > Best regards, > Paul Ravina > > -----Original Message----- > From: William Stacy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 3:26 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Off Topic HIPAA Question > > > Fortunately, my Rbase app DOES allow patient searches by patient ID, name, > DoB, > address, phone numbers, and (since I'm in eyecare) by Spectacle and Contact > lens > Rxs. Comes in real handy when the lady dosen't remember what name she gave > us > last time. Also handy when you can't remember the patient's name even though > you > just saw her an hour ago. I agree with the idea of epidemic tracking and > will > rethink that one. You are quite right that you have to force staff to use > the > alternate lookups, but on any lookup failure up pops the alternate methods, > right in their face. You can lead a horse to water... > > I especially like DoB lookups because they are so quickly entered, so fast > on > queries, and are relatively unique. I have a routine that looks for DoB > duplicates any time a new patient is added to try to trap accidental clones. > SSNs work great, but HIPPA says don't ask for that verbally unless nobody > else > is in the room, and of course not everyone will even give you that. (Also > true > about DoBs, which is when I go for the other alternate searches). Probably > the > biggest HIPPA problem for me is monitors that are visible to patients. A > definite no-no. > > bill > > Bob Speth wrote: > > > Bill, > > Most doctors would not care about old addresses. Those that are > > epidemiologists, by training or interest, would. The Love Canal, in New > > York, is an example of discovering a public health menace by knowing > current > > and prior patient locations. > > > > Customarily, men do not undergo name changes. Women do. To obtain prior > > medical records for women, it is important to have all their last names, > > maiden & married. Supplying just one last name, a DOB and a SSN is often > > insufficient. Many practice management systems (PMS)cannot search by DOB > or > > SSN. Even if the PMS has the capability, office staff frequently lack the > > initiative or creative thought to go beyond a last name search. Multiple > > last names help retrieve medical records that otherwise might have not > been > > located. > > > > Bob Speth, Office Manager > > Nancy L Orchard, MD > > 470 Del Norte Avenue > > Yuba City CA 95991 > > 530.674.4560 > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "William Stacy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "RBASE-L Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 9:11 AM > > Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Off Topic HIPAA Question > > > > > Steve Vellella wrote: > > > > > > > Bill, > > > > > > > > It tracks date/timestamp, what the user name is, and whether a record > > was added or > > > > just looked at, changed, or deleted. It also tracks a date/timestamp > for > > any > > > > patient correspondence. > > > > > > > > My system also keeps a historical record of exams so that you can look > > at old > > > > address or different last names - but not detail of editing changes on > a > > give > > > > record. > > > > > > Interesting. My database links the patient info table to the exam > tables > > by unique > > > patient ID, so if the name is changed, it will show up with the new name > > even when > > > looking at old exams. Sounds like you are flat-filing exams. I could > see > > maybe doing > > > that in a big archive file, but I think it might be a waste of storage > > space. It is > > > conceivable that I'd want to know what the patient's old > > name/address/phone was 5 years > > > ago, but I'm not sure why I would need that info. > > > > > > > The data auditing table has the potential to get pretty big, but with > > storage space > > > > being pretty inexpensive these days, it is not a big deal. > > > > > > Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I try to keep my database as tight and > > compact as I can. I > > > like being able to save my entire database to my keychain/pen drive. > > > > > > bill >
