HIPAA in the age of social media: Potential pitfalls and safe practices

Abstract

The 2003 security rule, expanded the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines to electronic protected health information (PHI) in response to the growth of the internet. [...]to account for the particular factors of different practice settings that may influence re-identification of PHI, institutions should formulate HIPAA standards uniquely to the needs of the practice [6]. [...]institutions should retain an expert for the purpose of reviewing drafted SM posts for risk of privacy breaches prior to public postings, to prevent inconsistent interpretations of HIPAA rules [1].