Now that there’s an honor system in place re: masks, the natural next question is… can we ask if someone’s vaccinated? There seems to be quite a bit of confusion around HIPAA. HIPAA is one of the most misunderstood health laws in the country HIPAA is the acronym for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-191). It’s a federal law that was
Many entities might need even need to ask people directly - they should be able to request aggregate data from their state or local health department to determine the percentage of customers/employees/residents/members who have been vaccinated. Government agencies have enough lawyers and statisticians that it shouldn't be too difficult for them to apply the "expert determination" method. And that would spare non-covered entities from having deal with personal health information. It also saves low-paid frontline staff from having to engage directly with anti-vaxers.
HIPAA Violation?
Yesssssss! Thank you!
Many entities might need even need to ask people directly - they should be able to request aggregate data from their state or local health department to determine the percentage of customers/employees/residents/members who have been vaccinated. Government agencies have enough lawyers and statisticians that it shouldn't be too difficult for them to apply the "expert determination" method. And that would spare non-covered entities from having deal with personal health information. It also saves low-paid frontline staff from having to engage directly with anti-vaxers.