optical lab as health care provider

[Laura Schmitt]

I’m looking for thoughts on whether an optical lab is a health care provider subject to the HIPAA privacy rule.  My thinking is that while it seems a stretch to include a lab that fills orders for glasses and has PHI in the way of prescriptions for such glasses, the definitions of health care provider would reach the lab and they would be included in the rule if order information and requests for payment are communicated electronically between the lab and the doctor’s office.  If someone has any authority which would take the lab out of the definition of health care provider, I would appreciate hearing it.   Laura D. Schmitt [EMAIL PROTECTED] 712-277-4561   This electronic message and any attachments hereto contain information from the law offices of Crary, Huff, Inkster, Sheehan, Ringgenberg, Hartnett, Storm & Jensen, P.C., which may be privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure.  The information is intended to be for the addressee only.  If you are not the addressee, any disclosure, copy, distribution or use of the contents of the message or any attachments hereto is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this electronic message in error, please notify us immediately and permanently delete the original message and attachments and any copies and destroy all hard copies of this message and any attachments.   --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org