home » assessment » Harcourt Assessment's HIPAA Position Statement
Harcourt Assessment's HIPAA Position Statement
NOTE: For those interested, here are some related resources on this website:
- Update on Malingering Research
- Deposition and Cross-examination Questions on Psychological Tests & Psychometrics
- Fallacies & Pitfalls in Psychological Assessment: 7 Common Mistakes
- Forensic Assessment Checklist
- Sample Agreement Between Expert Witness & Attorney
- Pearson Assessments HIPAA Regulations
- Multi-Health Systems' Test Disclosure Privacy Policy
- Responsibilities in Providing Psychological Test Feedback to Clients
- Practice Guidelines & Ethics Codes for Assessment, Forensics, Counseling, & Therapy
- The MMPI, MMPI-2, and MMPI-A In Court: A Practical Guide for Expert Witnesses and Attorneys (3rd Edition
HIPAA Position Statement
Many of our customers have inquired regarding Harcourt Assessment's
position on whether test record forms must be disclosed to patients
in order to
comply with the Privacy Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA). The HIPAA Privacy Rule provides that individuals
have a qualified
right of access to individually identifiable health information maintained
by health care providers covered by HIPAA. The widespread dissemination
of record forms (which may disclose test questions and answers) would
violate restrictions on providers' use of Harcourt Assessment's materials
and would
render test instruments invalid and therefore useless to the clinical
community and to the public at large. In order to obtain clarification
regarding
this matter, Harcourt Assessment requested an opinion from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is responsible for HIPAA. We
received a response from Richard Campanelli, the Director of the Office
for Civil Rights at HHS, who stated in response:
'[A]ny requirement for disclosure of protected health information pursuant
to the Privacy Rule is subject to Section 1172(e) of HIPAA, 'Protection
of Trade Secrets.' As such, we confirm that it would not be a violation
of the Privacy Rule for a covered entity to refrain from providing access
to an individual's protected health information, to the extent that doing
so would result in a disclosure of trade secrets.'
Accordingly, as we have done for many years, we will continue to advise our customers that Harcourt Assessment's test instruments are trade secrets and their usefulness and value would be compromised if they were generally available to the public. We have stated this position in correspondence, court cases, news articles and on our website for many years. This position is also consistent with our longstanding practice of ensuring through our terms and conditions of use that all purchasers have the appropriate qualifications to administer and interpret the instruments being purchased and that such purchasers agree to maintain the confidentiality of the instruments.
Given the above-quoted support from HHS, Harcourt Assessment reiterates that customers may not disseminate copies of test record forms or protocols to persons who erroneously claim that they are entitled to copies under HIPAA. As the HHS has now confirmed, HIPAA does not require any person to disclose any trade secret materials, and all restrictions on the dissemination of test record forms and protocols remain in effect.