Inside Secrets of HIPAA and Law Firms

Regulatory compliance is something that most small businesses and most small organizations haven't yet had to deal with except people like, for example, in the healthcare space in the financial services space, a lot of people don't realize law firms are having to deal with it. And it's a big issue for many of them and going to be more as we come down the road.

Let me give you an example. If you are a personal injury attorney and you are getting files, most people would say, well, they are not under HIPAA. They're under patient-client confidentiality with their client. That's true.  But if there was an accident and there was injuries on the other side and they received any medical documentation from the other side, they are now immediately under HIPAA. 

Whoa. So every attorney needs to ask themselves in my practice, do I ever accept medical documentation from someone who is not my client? If they ever answer, yes, they're under HIPAA.