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A business associate agreement is not required by the Privacy Rule for dental laboratory
services that are customarily provided by our lab pursuant to your prescriptions.The U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services drafted the Privacy Rule so that it would not interfere with the sharing
of information among health care providers for the treatment of patients.1 The Privacy Rule classifies
dentists and the dental laboratories that fulfill dentists’ work orders for prosthetics as health care
providers.2 Disclosures between you and the dental laboratory for the treatment activities that the lab
provides are explicitly excepted from the business associate requirements of the Privacy Rule.3
You will be interested to know that, “the Office of Civil Rights, the Health and Human Services
agency charged with HIPAA Privacy Rule enforcement provisions, said OCR agrees ...that dental
laboratories are health care providers, so no Business Associate Agreement is required to share
protected health information for treatment purposes” (ADA News, “ADA, NADL, OCR agree on status of
l” May 5, 2003, Page 6). Even so, the lab does not receive patients’ telephone numbers, addresses,
birth dates, social security numbers, medical records or data directly identifying individuals’ relatives,
employers or household members (“Protected Health Information”). Names that clients provide are only
used by the lab to help clients identify their cases and you can use an in-office coding system to identify
cases if you wish.
Examples of transactions that are covered by the HIPAA regulations can be found in the ADA
News (see the March 17, 2003 issue, “Final HIPAA electronic health care transaction standards
announced,” Page 15). Additionally, you can call the ADA’s HIPAA Hotline at 312-440-2899, ext.3, for a
recorded message explaining that dental laboratories are not business associates and what transactions
are covered. Although a business associate agreement is not required between you and the lab, we
remain committed to safeguarding the confidentiality of our clients, and you can rest assured that no
privileged doctor-patient confidential information will ever be disclosed without your authorization.
We appreciate the opportunity to participate in the treatment of your patients. Thank you for using our
lab’s dental services.
1 See 67 Federal Register 53252
2 See 65 Federal Register 82568
3 See Privacy Rule 164.502 (e)(1)
(Form Date: February 2009) |
