HIPAA - Guidance: Scheduling and Confirming Appointments

GUIDANCE (Apr. 2003)

SCHEDULING AND CONFIRMING APPOINTMENTS

Question
If someone (parent, guardian, family member, and/or friend) calls the University of Chicago to schedule or confirm an appointment, what do we do?

Procedure

VERIFY ID	Please verify the identity of the caller by asking the caller to supply information about the patient -- the last 4 digits of the patient's social security number, birth date, and home address. Please do NOT provide this information to the caller and ask them if it is correct. Rather, ask the caller for this information.
WATCH FOR	If the caller attempts to elicit any additional information regarding the patient's condition or purpose of the visit, do not provide them with that information unless the patient has given permission to release the information to the caller.

Procedure - Caller wants to schedule an appointment

SCHEDULE

Parents, guardians, family members, and/or friends may call the University of Chicago and schedule an appointment for a patient.

Procedure - Caller wants to confirm an appointment

CONFIRM

Parents, guardians, family members, and/or friends may call the University of Chicago and confirm an appointment date/time and asking if that is correct. It is appropriate to answer yes or no based on that information. If the information provided is the correct date and the time is within an hour, you may provide the correct time. If not, the patient must call directly.

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