HIPAA stands for the Well being Insurance coverage Portability and Accountability Act. It’s an overarching piece of laws regarding well being info in the US.
In the event you handle social media for a healthcare group, you’ve come to the best place. On this article, we clarify what HIPAA says about social media, go over frequent HIPAA violations, and share ideas for constructing a HIPAA-compliant social media technique.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable social media coverage template to shortly and simply create pointers in your firm and workers.
HIPAA doesn’t explicitly say something about social media. That’s as a result of the requirements had been created earlier than social media platforms existed. Nevertheless, social media is topic to the Privateness Rule. The requirements on disclosures of protected well being info are significantly related.
Supply: CDC
Which means organizations coated by HIPAA can not publish or share any protected well being info on social media with out the related particular person’s particular, written authorization.
Who is roofed by HIPAA social media guidelines?
Let’s dive slightly deeper right here. First, who is roofed by HIPAA on social media?
Lined entities are:
- Healthcare suppliers, like medical doctors, dentists, and pharmacies.
- Well being plans, like HMOs and employer well being plans.
- Healthcare clearinghouses, which course of well being info.
HIPAA additionally covers enterprise associates of those coated entities. These are companions that require entry to well being info to carry out sure companies.
What info is roofed by HIPAA social media guidelines?
So, what’s a HIPAA violation on social media? First, let’s take a look at some definitions from the Code of Federal Rules. They make clear what kinds of info are protected:
- Well being info: “Pertains to the previous, current, or future bodily or psychological well being or situation of a person; the availability of well being care to a person; or the previous, current, or future fee for the availability of well being care to a person.”
- Protected well being info is: “individually identifiable well being info … transmitted or maintained in any … type or medium,” with a number of exceptions for training and employment data and individuals who died greater than 50 years in the past.
- And a designated file set consists of: “any merchandise, assortment, or grouping of data that features protected well being info.”
That’s quite a bit to parse. Let’s take a look at an easier definition of protected well being info (PHI) from the Medicare Studying Community. (MLN is a part of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.)
PHI consists of:
- “Widespread identifiers, reminiscent of identify, tackle, start date, and SSN
- The affected person’s previous, current, or future bodily or psychological well being situation
- Well being care you present to the affected person, and
- The previous, current, or future fee for well being care you present to the affected person.”
Nearly something identifiable to a affected person in your data is protected by HIPAA. Importantly for social media, this consists of images during which a affected person’s identify, face, or different identifiable particulars are seen.
There are 18 particular identifiers “that may very well be used to establish the person or the person’s family, employers, or family members.” None of those will be included on social media.
Well being info will be “de-identified.” This course of makes use of both professional willpower or the secure harbor technique. The secure harbor technique (elimination of identifiers) is the very best method to forestall social media HIPAA violations.
Supply: HHS
Yow will discover the total particulars of the identifiers on the HHS web site.
Posting affected person info with out authorization
You’ll by no means publish a affected person’s private well being data on social media. However you may need to share a affected person testimonial. Or possibly a case examine that features a affected person’s identify for credibility.
To adjust to HIPAA, you want express written authorization from the related affected person. The problem is that HIPAA authorizations should give the affected person the proper to revoke their authorization.
If a affected person revokes their authorization, you may take away the social media publish from your personal channels. However what if another person has captured a screenshot and shared it elsewhere? When you publish affected person info on public social channels, you lose management of how that info will unfold.
Sharing affected person images or paperwork
Any time you share a photograph of your office or facility on social media, HIPAA violations ought to be entrance of thoughts.
The foreground may present a few your smiling workers or a brand new piece of kit. However what’s within the background? Are the faces of any sufferers or their members of the family seen? What about affected person charts, medical data, names, or different particulars on partitions or desks?
In the event you’re sharing an instance of your work, or of a situation or harm, it’s apparent to keep away from revealing the affected person’s face. However have you ever captured every other identifiable marks (e.g. tattoos or uncommon birthmarks)?
Responding to complaints or unfavourable evaluations
Restaurant homeowners have gone viral with cheeky replies to individuals who left undeserved unfavourable suggestions. However this isn’t a viable choice for these working in healthcare.
For instance, in 2022, the HHS Workplace for Civil Rights issued a $50,000 effective towards a dental apply. That they had used a affected person’s full identify in response to a criticism on the corporate’s Google enterprise web page. The unique criticism used a pseudonym.
Later that very same 12 months, HHS fined one other dental apply $23,000 and issued a corrective motion plan for comparable violations on Yelp.
Within the press launch for the latter case, OCR Director Melanie Fontes said:
“This newest enforcement motion demonstrates the significance of following the legislation even when you’re utilizing social media. Suppliers can not disclose protected well being info of their sufferers when responding to unfavourable on-line evaluations.”
Unfavourable evaluations might sting, however a significant effective stings extra. Stay skilled. Maintain affected person info confidential, regardless of how tempting it might be to name them out.
Sharing affected person info with an company
Do you’re employed with a third-party advertising company that will help you with social media? That you must contemplate what info they’ve entry to. If they’ve entry to any private well being info, together with affected person images, you want them to signal a enterprise affiliate settlement.
Creating customized audiences for social adverts
Paid social is one other potential supply of social media HIPAA violations. For instance, you can not signal a enterprise affiliate settlement with Fb. Which means you can not add an inventory of affected person emails to create a customized viewers for Fb adverts.
That doesn’t imply you need to keep away from all focusing on on social. In the event you perceive the traits of your goal market, you need to use these focusing on choices to achieve the best audiences with social adverts. You simply can’t use identifiable info from present sufferers within the course of.
Speaking by way of social messaging platforms
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, HHS supplied flexibility on well being care communication channels. Nevertheless, that flexibility is scheduled to finish on Could 11, 2023.
In case you have been utilizing channels like Fb Messenger or WhatsApp to speak with sufferers, your technique wants to vary. You’ll be able to nonetheless talk nearly with sufferers, however you want to use HIPAA-compliant options.
If you wish to use SMS, WhatsApp, or social messaging companies to ship appointment reminders, you want to ship them with none PHI included.
Which means it is best to embody solely your apply identify and the time of the appointment. You can not embody the affected person identify or the character of the appointment within the message. You additionally must get affected person authorization to speak utilizing textual content channels earlier than doing so. Even for appointment reminders.
The results for a HIPAA violation depend upon the character of the violation and who dedicated it. For instance, the results are harsher for a violation on a hospital’s company account. A violation on the non-public account of a nurse who works at that hospital will probably be much less extreme.
Each group coated by HIPAA ought to have a sanctions coverage for violations. These would apply to a violation made by somebody who works on the group.
And for the group itself? A violation case that goes to the Well being and Human Companies Workplace for Civil Rights might end in a significant monetary penalty. The utmost effective is $1.5 million.
Supply: Nationwide Consortium of Telehealth Useful resource Facilities
1. Perceive the laws
HIPAA social media guidelines are tough to know particularly as a result of there are not any express HIPAA safety laws for social media. Instad, you want to take your understanding of the HIPAA Privateness Rule and apply it to social media.
In brief, MLN specifies that you have to:
- “Notify sufferers about their privateness rights and the way you employ their info
- Undertake privateness procedures and practice workers to comply with them
- Assign a person to ensure you’re adopting and following privateness procedures, and
- Safe affected person data containing PHI so that they aren’t available to those that don’t must see them.”
2. Prepare your workforce
As famous above, coaching your workforce is a required part of HIPAA compliance for social media. Which means your entire workforce, not simply your social workforce.
Nearly all workers inside a well being care setting have entry to some extent of PHI. Which means any worker may expose your group to social media HIPAA violations.
Unintended social media HIPAA violation examples by your workforce may embody:
- a workers Instagram photograph that reveals a affected person’s face within the background, or
- a publish in a Fb group a few celeb session or troublesome case.
3. Restrict entry to your social accounts
Limiting entry to your social accounts protects your group towards posting content material that violates HIPAA social media guidelines. Everybody in your workforce ought to perceive the fundamentals. However you want to assign one or two key people who find themselves HIPAA social media specialists. They need to log off on content material earlier than posting.
Nevertheless, these specialists are probably at too excessive of a stage in your group to be accountable for creating all of the social content material. Which means you want a system of workflows and approvals. Acceptable members of your social workforce can create content material that’s then queued for approval by your HIPAA specialists.
Hootsuite has a built-in content material creation and approval course of. You’ll be able to assign particular permissions for particular person workforce members. You may as well arrange approvals on responses to social feedback, which is a key space the place potential HIPAA violations can happen.
Hootsuite means that you can revoke entry to your social accounts when somebody leaves your group or adjustments roles. This helps guarantee compliance with HIPAA entry guidelines.
4. Create clear social media pointers
It’s essential for any healthcare group utilizing social media to have a strong social media coverage. The coverage wants to obviously define how HIPAA impacts social media. Embody some social media HIPAA violation examples to make the coverage clear.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable social media coverage template to shortly and simply create pointers in your firm and workers.
The coverage ought to have detailed necessities for posts constructed from your company social accounts. However you additionally must create HIPAA social media pointers for workers private accounts. HIPAA guidelines apply to the non-public accounts of healthcare workers.
Construct a system of HIPAA violation social media sanctions into the rules. This ensures workers perceive the repercussions of breaking the principles.
5. Implement a social monitoring program
Implement a social media monitoring program to observe for hashtags and key phrases related to your group. This is a crucial means of understanding what’s being mentioned about your group on social media.
Lots of the posts mentioning your group might come from sufferers or different people who find themselves not topic to HIPAA laws. However it is usually a very good early-warning system for workers posts that by accident violate the principles.
You’re in a significantly better place in case you catch and resolve a disclosure of PHI on social media earlier than a criticism is filed.
Is changing into Fb buddies with sufferers a violation of HIPAA?
It’s not strictly talking a HIPAA violation to be Fb buddies with a affected person. Nevertheless, it’s not a really helpful apply. As an alternative, create a Fb enterprise web page that your sufferers can comply with for updates out of your apply.
Is following a affected person on social media a HIPAA violation?
In search of out a affected person on social media utilizing their PHI (together with their identify) could also be a HIPAA violation. It’s higher to keep away from private connections with sufferers on social media.
What info will be shared with out violating HIPAA?
You’ll be able to share “de-identified” info on social media with out violating HIPAA. Following the “secure harbor” technique, you have to take away all 18 identifiers from the knowledge.
You may as well share info not linked to any affected person on social media. For instance, you possibly can share:
- wholesome residing ideas
- workers profiles, or
- updates about how your group helps the group.
Main healthcare suppliers, insurers, and life science firms worldwide use Hootsuite to enhance their buyer expertise, unify their social message, and guarantee compliance with trade laws. See for your self why we’re the healthcare trade’s main social media administration platform.
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