Medicare and Medicaid programs; Medicare, Medicaid, and Clinical Laboratories Improvement Act (CLIA) patient confidentiality rules--PHS and HCFA. Final rule.
This final rule eliminates the requirement that a laboratory maintain the name and other identification of individuals undergoing testing to determine the presence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) antibody or causative agent, if the laboratory is not seeking Medicare or Medicaid payment for these tests. However, it will not excuse a laboratory from maintaining such information if it is required to do so by State law. Those laboratories or entities seeking payment from the Medicare or Medicaid programs for HIV testing must continue to provide the name and other identification of persons tested to assure proper payment of claims. However, State Medicaid programs may choose to approve the use of alternative identifiers in place of the patient's name for HIV testing of Medicaid recipients. Also, laboratories licensed under CLIA will not be required to maintain the names and other identification of individuals being tested to determine the presence of the HIV antibody or causative agent. The intent of this change is to add further protection of confidentiality of HIV test results and to encourage voluntary testing.
D015492:AIDS Serodiagnosis / Q000191:economics*; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D035082:Federal Government; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006278:Medicare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States; D014492:United States Public Health Service