{"id":5608,"date":"2014-02-03T13:19:02","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T18:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healthit.gov\/buzz-blog\/?p=5608"},"modified":"2026-01-06T05:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:38:57","slug":"seeking-input-personal-representatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/blog\/privacy-and-security\/seeking-input-personal-representatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Your Input: Personal Representatives and V, D, &#038; T"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Health IT Policy Committee&#8217;s Privacy and Security Tiger Team is considering potential privacy and security policy issues that could arise when a family member, friend or legal designee is given access to patient information through the Certified EHR Technology &#8220;view\/download\/transmit&#8221; (V\/D\/T) capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ideally, we want your comments in time to inform our discussions during a meeting we are convening Feb. 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HIPAA permits covered entities to share identifiable health information relevant to a patient&#8217;s care with family members or friends involved in a patient\u2019s care, unless the patient objects.&nbsp; It also requires covered entities to treat a &#8220;personal representative&#8221; (a person authorized under State or other applicable law to act on behalf of the individual in making healthcare related decisions) the same as they would treat the patient.&nbsp; For example, personal representatives have the same rights of access to medical record information as the patient would have.&nbsp; Because patients can access relevant health care information through V\/D\/T, the Tiger Team is considering whether there are additional privacy and security policy issues that need to be resolved when family or friends access the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s where you come in. To further inform this discussion, the Tiger Team wants broad input on this subject.&nbsp; We offer the following questions to kick off this discussion but we invite comment on any issue related to this topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-personal-representatives\">Personal Representatives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Are there policy issues that need further resolution regarding personal representative access to view\/download\/transmit accounts?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do health-care providers confirm that an individual is, in fact, a personal representative?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-friends-amp-family\">Friends &amp; Family<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How are patients\u2019 friends and family provided with credentialed access to view\/download\/transmit accounts?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is this access &#8220;all or nothing,&#8221; or are there more granular options?&nbsp; If the latter, how does this get accomplished?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Tiger Team will continue its discussion of these issues at its next meeting, scheduled for February 10<sup>th<\/sup> from 2:00 to 3:30 pm EST. Instructions on how to listen to this <a href=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/hitac\/\/2014\/02\/10\/policy-privacy-security-tiger-team\">meeting here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Health IT Policy Committee&#8217;s Privacy and Security Tiger Team is considering potential privacy and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_selected_menu":"","_show_breadcrumbs":"true","_blog_show_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"archived-category":[],"featured":[],"topics":[438,425,436,437,435],"class_list":["post-5608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-privacy-and-security","topics-hipaa-compliance","topics-hit-policy","topics-privacy","topics-security","topics-security-privacy"],"acf":{"blog_authors":[{"blog_author_profiles":"173447"},{"blog_author_profiles":"198616"}],"hp_news_hide":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.5 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Help us ID privacy and security issues when family gains access to PHI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ONC&#039;s privacy and security Tiger Team wants your help to ID potential issues when friends, families or other designees gain access to patients&#039; health data.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/blog\/privacy-and-security\/seeking-input-personal-representatives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeking Your Input: Personal Representatives and V, D, &amp; T\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ONC&#039;s privacy and security Tiger Team wants your help to ID potential issues when friends, families or other designees gain access to patients&#039; health data.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/blog\/privacy-and-security\/seeking-input-personal-representatives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ONC Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-03T18:19:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-06T05:38:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/08\/ONC.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sleigh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleigh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/healthit.gov\\\/blog\\\/privacy-and-security\\\/seeking-input-personal-representatives\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/healthit.gov\\\/blog\\\/privacy-and-security\\\/seeking-input-personal-representatives\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"sleigh\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/healthit.gov\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0719592fcc77f0e269f191216da0aae7\"},\"headline\":\"Seeking Your Input: Personal Representatives and V, D, &#038; 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