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To complete the thought I started in my last comment...;.
I don't think the authors of HIPAA thought in terms of the unintended consequences of their actions (such as the ones we both have noted) when they authored HIPAA initially.
posted by
kidnykid
on November 28, 2003 at 9:01 PM
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We Catholics have the same problem, Editormum
Editormum, so many elderly Catholics feel abandoned for the precise reason you mention - the priests are used to being able to come in and find out just which of their parishioners are in the hospital. HIPAA prevents the priests from finding out this information - the patient or his or her family has to call the rectory with the information. I don't know what Jewish customs or rites are when someone is ill, but Catholic priests are authorized to give the Sacrament of the Sick when someone's in the hospital, so it's very important for the priests to know who's laid up and who isn't. And the bishops have just as hard a time finding out which of their priests are in the hospital at any given time; someone has to call the chancery and say that "Father So-and-So is in Loyola." I d
posted by
kidnykid
on November 28, 2003 at 8:52 PM
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FYI...
HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It also prohibits hospitals from releasing the names of hospitalized patients to clergymen, which is causing us a real problem at my workplace, as people in the congregation are used to the Rabbi visiting them in the hospital but they are not used to having to tell him they are there. It's hard for him to visit if he doesn't know they are there.
posted by
editormum
on November 28, 2003 at 7:15 PM
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