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Fundraising Under HIPAA —The Privacy Rule— From Stuart R. Smith, FAHP - Chair Requirements for Fundraising For purposes of fundraising, the health provider (called a “covered entity” under the Privacy Rule) must comply with these new regulations effective on April 14, 2003. Consequently, current professional fundraising practices, as these practices are conducted by Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) members today, may continue until the implementation date without modification. [1] AHP'successfully educated HHS in 2001 to continue to allow covered entities access to demographic patient information for fundraising purposes while denying complete access to patient medical records. Only demographic information may be used in fundraising efforts with the restrictions contained in the regulations and detailed in the analysis which follows. For the first time in health care's history, even though the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy members are part of “health care provider operations,” we no longer have access to medical record information.[2] Part of AHP's education effort with HHS demonstrated that our members were interested in protecting their obligation and right as not-for-profit health care providers to conduct fundraising in order to benefit the community. We noted that AHP's interest was in maintaining access to limited information about grateful patients and families. The HHS favored AHP's position and reversed its original statement in the proposed regulations, which would have denied us access to medical records and demographic information. This was a major success for AHP and philanthropy in health care as philanthropy relates to not-for-profit health providers and institutionally related foundations. AHP is grateful for the understanding and positive action HHS issued in its final regulations. Still, there are specific requirements we must now meet, and a major educational undertaking we must launch to inform our donors, trustees, CEO's and administrators (compliance officers and legal counsel), and the public to correct confusion and bring clarity to the issue of how professional not-for-profit health care fundraisers employed by the provider, can and should act. Our obligation is to promote philanthropy in order to become more effective in providing for community needs and becoming recognized as the health care resource to the community and those we serve. To that end, the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy posed five important questions concerning the Privacy Rule and requested that AHP's legal counsel (Peter Parvis, Esq. at the firm of Venable, Washington, D.C.) provide advice to assist us in complying with the privacy regulations as they pertain to our philanthropic efforts and responsibilities. We suggest you use the analysis and conclusions sections which follow with your donors, trustees, CEO's, administrators, and the public as we move into the implementation phase of these regulations. The Questions Presented and Conclusions (the “short answer”) section is intended to address the most common issues raised concerning the privacy regulations regarding fundraising. The more detailed Discussion (the “long answer”) section is intended to give you an in depth understanding of the issues and implementation of the regulations. A Definitions section and a sample business associate agreement (provided by HHS) are included at the end of the analysis. Finally, as you begin your review, please do not hesitate to contact AHP with any specific questions you may have.
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