Hospital Chaplaincy Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule Health Care.pdf

Scholarly Commons @ UNLV L aw Scholarly orks Faculty Scholarship 2005 Hospital Chaplaincy Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Health Care or J ust Visiting the Sick? Stacey A. Tovino University of N evada, Las Veg as -- William S. Boyd School of Law Follow this and additional works at : /facpub Part of the Health Law Commons Recommended Citation Tovino, Stacey A., Hospital Chaplaincy Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Health Care or J ust Visiting the Sick? (2005). Scholarly Works. Paper 392. /facpub/392 This Article is brought to you by Scholarly Commons @ UNLV L aw, an institutional repository administered by the iener-Rogers Law Library at the illiam S. Boyd School of Law. For more information, please contact david.mcclure@. HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY UNDER THE HIPAA PRIVACY RULE: HEALTH CARE OR JUST VISITING THE SICK? Stacey A. Tovino* INTRODUCTION Approximately seventy-nine percent of Americans believe that praying can help people recover from illness, injury or disease, and nearly seventy- seven percent ofAmerican patients would like spiritual issues discussed as part of their care.2 Despite Americans strong beliefs in the health-related benefits of religious and spiritual practices and traditions, the preamble to the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) health information privacy rule (the Privacy Rule)3 explains that health care does not include * Research Professor, Health Law Policy Institute, University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas. Doctoral student, Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch; J.D., 1997, University of Houston Law Center; B.A., 1994, Tulan