HIPAA came into existence before the arrival of any social media platforms, hence, the law does not contain any explicit rules regarding the use of social media.
Social media platforms can be a very useful resource for advertisement, networking, and patient engagement. However, the provisions of HIPAA concerning health-related information still apply to social media posts.
Given the amount of reach and simplicity of sharing information on social media, social media usage presents unique challenges to HIPAA compliance for healthcare professionals.
What can you not share on social media?
The only important rule to remember when engaging on social media is to never share any information that can be used to identify individual patients’ or their health records.
Information that can be used to identify an individual is known as protected health information (PHI), under HIPAA. PHI consists of information that healthcare providers use to identify patients and determine their appropriate care.
Such as patients’ names, addresses, medical record numbers, biometric identifiers (iris patterns, fingerprints, photos), Social Security Numbers (SSN), appointment schedules, to name a few.
Generally, sharing PHI on social media platforms does not qualify as healthcare operations, treatment, or payment.
If a healthcare worker were to share a patient’s PHI without permission, it would be considered as a violation of HIPAA, and likely violation of state law as well. In order to share PHI-related information, physicians or nurses must first obtain a valid authorization from the patient.
That being said, social media channels are an integral part of many business functions and you cannot be too careful in enforcing social media policies.
If you aren’t sure about what information constitutes a HIPAA violation, you should rather refrain yourself from posting such information. Here are some precautionary steps you can take when it comes to social media use:
- Monitor company’s social media accounts and moderate sections by implementing controls that can automatically moderate potential violations
- Just in case, never talk about patients in any way on social media platforms
- Refrain yourself from engaging with patients who have disclosed PHI on social media
- Don’t vent your work-related frustrations on social media
What if you don’t have a valid authorization?
Even with valid patient authorization, health care providers can share information on social media only under the circumstances that the patient has a clear understanding of how their PHI will be used or disclosed. However, if a provider wants to share information without the patient’s consent, then the PHI must first be de-identified.
PHI de-identification is the process where any information that can be used to identify an individual is removed from the health record. There should be no reasonable basis to believe that the information shared can be used to identify a patient. Before using or disclosing PHI, the health care provider can remove the following identifiers:
- Names;
- Geographic information;
- Dates (e.g birth dates, appointment dates, discharge dates, date of deaths);
- E-mail addresses;
- Telephone numbers;
- Fax numbers;
- Medical record numbers;
- Social Security numbers;
- Health plan beneficiary numbers;
- Account numbers;
- Certificate numbers;
- Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers (e.g license plate numbers);
- Device identifier numbers;
- URLs;
- IP address numbers;
- Biometric identifiers (e.g fingerprints and iris patterns);
- Photographic images of full face and any comparable images; and
- Other unique identifiers, numbers, characters, codes.
Using Social Media
With proper guidelines in place, social media can be used in many ways that can benefit a healthcare organization. Practices should develop and implement clear policies and procedures addressing both personal and professional social media usage to ensure HIPAA compliance.
Generally speaking, social media are now used to attract new customers or educate current customers on useful topics or a piece of news. Here are some ways that healthcare organizations can use social media to their advantage:
- Post information that viewers might find helpful, for example, health tips
- Details of upcoming events/seminars
- Share new medical research information
- Biographies of staff members
- Posts about awards or honors that you or organization have received
- Marketing messages without including any PHI
- Promotional offers such as discounts on services you offer
