WASHINGTON, April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On the fifth
anniversary since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) patient privacy rules went into effect, the Federal government has
again conceded there are practically no examples of violations "in the
context of fundraising efforts," the Association for Healthcare
Philanthropy (AHP) revealed today.
The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services said in a recent email to AHP that practically none of the
complaints it has received alleging violations of HIPAA privacy rules
involve fundraising. Through February 2008, the Civil Rights Office has
received a total of 33,916 complaints since the rule's April 14, 2003
effective date.
"While OCR's complaint system does not specifically track complaints
dealing with philanthropic activities, anecdotal information from OCR's
regional investigative offices suggest that a very small number of
complaints involve allegations that protected health information has been
misused in the context of fundraising efforts by covered entities," a
senior HHS official told AHP. A similar conclusion was drawn by HHS in
2007.
William McGinly, president and CEO of AHP, said that the government's
admission is once again proof that despite HIPAA-imposed paperwork burdens
and limitations on access to grateful patient records, "philanthropic
health care organizations have fostered voluntary compliance of the highest
order and have fully cooperated with the Federal government on HIPAA."
The Bush administration moved to institute stringent, across-the-board
HIPAA patient privacy regulations in 2003, despite the fact that President
Clinton had let stand the access of AHP members to grateful patient
information. The information had been used to ask grateful patients and
their families for donations which funded a wide range of programs,
including pre-natal screening, free dental care, community clinics, hospice
programs, drug recovery programs, cancer screening initiatives and mobile
mammography vans.
During deliberations over HIPAA privacy issues, AHP conducted a focused
lobbying campaign and membership letter writing effort at HHS and on
Capitol Hill, opposing changes to the law that would adversely affect AHP
members. In testimony on HIPAA, McGinly said AHP member organizations "work
on razor thin budgets" and that denial of access to grateful patient
demographic information "would block the lifeblood of philanthropic gift
giving."
Since the more stringent HIPAA privacy rules went into effect five
years ago, AHP has provided tools and training to its members to assist
their efforts to comply while maintaining philanthropic giving levels that
are vital to the nonprofit health care community. The association's Web
site, http://www.ahp.org, provides members with more than 100 pages of
information dealing with HIPAA compliance, and HIPAA training is an
important component of AHP's professional education curricula.
AHP has also launched its Performance Benchmarking Service. This
integrated database of business practices and performance metrics helps
participating hospitals and health care systems improve philanthropic
fundraising and fosters greater transparency, a key factor contributing to
HIPAA compliance.
The Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, established in 1967, is a
not-for-profit organization whose 4,600+ members manage philanthropic
programs in 2,200 of North America's not-for-profit health care providers.
AHP's audience includes fundraising professionals, development staff,
public relations professionals, trustees, marketing professionals,
administrators, and executives interested in health care fundraising.
SOURCE Association for Health Care Philanthropy
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Related links:
http://www.ahp.org
CONTACT:
Kathy Renzetti, kathy@ahp.org,
+1-703-532-6243, +1-571-216-0146, or William C. McGinly,
bill@ahp.org, +1-703-626-8160
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