As an author, may I publish memoirs which include anecdotes related to former patients, now deceased, whom I once cared for, without any identifiers related to the individual? Do HIPAA laws apply in this case?

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Originally Posted by phred1

As an author, may I publish memoirs which include anecdotes related to former patients, now deceased, whom I once cared for, without any identifiers related to the individual? Do HIPAA laws apply in this case?

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I'm sorry I do not have an answer to your question but I am curious about HIPAA law. What is that?

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Originally Posted by Holiday75

I'm sorry I do not have an answer to your question but I am curious about HIPAA law. What is that?

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It is the federal regulations that came into being a few years back... governs the release of information of patients in health care situations... probably needs to be answered by an attorney skilled in healthcare issues. Hope this helps...

Hello phred:

I don't know either, but that never stopped me from venturing my opinion.

Since the HIPPA laws were created to protect patient privacy, and you're not going to violate the privacy of any of your patients (living or dead), I would say that you can write your memoirs.

If you get busted, just tell 'em that some exconvict on the internet told you that you could. Bwa ha ha ha ha.

excon

You can check the HIIPA site for details, but, I agree with excon, as long as you don't do anything that can specifically identify an individual, you should be OK.

I agree that it should be OK (and hopefully you are using aliases, etc. to protect their family's privacy anyway). But still, you might want to ask the family if it is a particularly sensitive case (say a bible-thumping preacher who died because of an STD), and it might be worth the money to run the idea past a lawyer who is skilled in this area as a bit of insurance.

The main issue is to be sure that person can not be identified, perhaps charge or alter something's or combine several patients into one character.
Or even better get a release from them or from the person who has handled their estate.

For example we often tell a person getting a new wheel chair or a new speical walker what other patients do to get doors open or to get them into a small car and so on. We speak in a more general manner not speicific.