11.13 - Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

All enrolled students must annually complete the online HIPAA training and submit a certificate of completion through the appropriate process as communicated by their program. It is recommended that students retain a copy of this certificate for their personal education records. The HIPAA training must be completed within thirty (30) days from the first day of classes unless the department or college requires earlier completion, and annually thereafter.

The HIPAA Privacy Regulations established national standards regarding uses and disclosures of protected health information and place stringent requirements on practitioners and researchers to protect the privacy of patients and research participants and selected others. Additional information about HIPAA is available online, and the University’s Protection of Health Information Policies and Procedures Manual is available online.

When completing assignments that include patient-related information, students must follow these guidelines:

• Maintain confidentiality concerning all protected health information;
• Restrict the use and/or disclosure of protected health information, even though permitted, to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended educational purpose.
• De-identify patient films or paperwork by removing identifying information such as the following, before leaving the clinical setting:
  • All names
  • All addresses including street, city, county, zip code, email address, URLs, Internet Protocol address
  • All dates (except year) including birth date, admission date, discharge date, procedure date, etc. and all dates including year of birth for patients or research participants 90 or older
  • All numbers including medical record, health plan, account, certificate/license, vehicle identifiers, device identifiers and serial numbers, telephone, fax, social security, etc.
  • Biometric identifiers and photographic images
  • All other unique identifying numbers, characteristics or codes