Under HIPAA, what does an accounting of disclosures document?

Under HIPAA, what does an accounting of disclosures document?

• A. A list of disclosures of their PHI by the covered entity.
• B. A record of all visits.
• C. A summary of lab results.
• D. A schedule of future appointments.

Answer: (A)

Under HIPAA, an accounting of disclosures is a record that shows every time a covered entity (or business associate acting on its behalf) disclosed a patient’s protected health information to someone outside the organization. It lists who received the PHI, what was disclosed, when it was disclosed, and for what purpose (typically within the prior six years, with certain allowed exceptions). This makes the item describing disclosures of PHI by the covered entity the correct choice, because the accounting is specifically about external sharing of PHI. The other options don’t fit: a record of visits tracks appointments, a summary of lab results is about medical data itself, and a schedule of future appointments is scheduling information, not external disclosures.

Under HIPAA, an accounting of disclosures is a record that shows every time a covered entity (or business associate acting on its behalf) disclosed a patient’s protected health information to someone outside the organization. It lists who received the PHI, what was disclosed, when it was disclosed, and for what purpose (typically within the prior six years, with certain allowed exceptions). This makes the item describing disclosures of PHI by the covered entity the correct choice, because the accounting is specifically about external sharing of PHI. The other options don’t fit: a record of visits tracks appointments, a summary of lab results is about medical data itself, and a schedule of future appointments is scheduling information, not external disclosures.