Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/03/15

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Subject: [Leica] Insights about handling a delicate photo situation
From: hlritter at bex.net (Howard Ritter)
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:07:05 -0400
References: <mailman.32.1237152145.976.lug@leica-users.org> <30F0E4ABEA653843BF8B483FC20BDB171CAA8B19@ntserver.ebferro.com>

It's not a dumb question. I'm almost certain that HIPAA protects the  
privacy of the deceased.

As far as taking photos of hospice patients (or "clients"!) goes,  
HIPAA does not prohibit healthcare workers (which would include  
hospice volunteers while functioning in that capacity) from taking and  
publishing their photographs, only doing so without permission.

Regarding Sue's mention of her sister being one of my nurses: this is  
one of the more amazing coincidences I've had happen to me. The LUG  
has, what, at most a few hundred members who post in any given year,  
out of a worldwide population of 6 billion? And these are distributed  
across at least four continents circling the globe. Sue posts a photo  
taken a few miles from where I live, establishing that two of us live  
within the same metro area of less than a million people, already an  
improbable coincidence. We correspond and find that, first, we're both  
in the healthcare field, then that we work in the same hospital and  
adjacent office sites, and then that her sister Cheri and my nurse  
Cheri are one and the same person...  Flat out amazing.

--howard


On Mar 15, 2009, at 7:13 PM, Ernest B. Ferro wrote:

> I'm not an attorney and excuse me if this is a dumb question.  Does  
> still HIPAA apply to a person who has passed away?
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



In reply to: Message from ebferro at ebferro.com (Ernest B. Ferro) ([Leica] Insights about handling a delicate photo situation)