The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996, and for the last 21 years has been ruining a lot of fun. Prior to 1996, dentists were legally allowed to talk about the gross stuff they saw with anyone! (Now they must do it in private groups on Dentaltown and hide from Big Brother's lazy eye.) Like most things created by the government, there's a lot of gray area around exactly what makes for a solid HIPAA violation. We've cut down the 72,000 words that make up HIPAA, which are supposed "to simplify the administration of health insurance" and summarized with a few "no" examples.
Open conversation.
Yell across the crowded waiting room, "Mr. Thompson, if you don't sign this HIPAA form, the doc won't be able to figure out what that lump on your lip is!"
Upcycle.
Donate old patient charts to the middle school's paper airplane flying contest. No reason to waste perfectly harmless paper.
Hashtag engagement.
Post a handful of panorexes on Facebook, tag your patients, and play a round of "Guess Who Needs Invisalign?"
Text 'em.
Slide into your patient's DMs and let them know you care. Who doesn't want an unsolicited doc pic?
Sharing is caring.
"Don't feel bad that you have a couple cavities. You know who really has a rotten mouth? Cheryl! It's like something died in there! Compared to her, you're as sterile as Jon!"
Authorizing release.
Who has time for written consent? Doesn't anyone just accept a handshake and some straight talk anymore?
Accessing the cloud.
"Honey, I saved the recipe on the Dropbox. It should be in the folder labeled 'Casserole' but I think I may have put it in 'Cassandra's Treatment.' If it's not there, look in 'Cool Stuff.'"
All aboard the compliance train.
Post arbitrary HIPAA-ish notices behind the breakroom door, copy a manual found online, conduct a compliance seminar once a decade—and when all else fails, do what you do best: guess!