Dec

22

HIPAA Q&A: Police department mailings

By mbrandt

A. Yes. Forwarding addresses provided by the post office are public information that is not protected under HIPAA. You can use this information to update addresses in your patient database.

Editor’s note: Mary D. Brandt, MBA, RHIA, CHE, CHPS, vice president of health information management at Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, TX, answered this question. She is a nationally recognized expert on patient privacy, information security, and regulatory compliance, and her publications provided some of the basis for HIPAA’s privacy regulations.