Skip to main content

Nixon Peabody LLP

  • People
  • Capabilities
  • Insights
  • About
Trending Topics
    • People
    • Capabilities
    • Insights
    • About
    • Locations
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Alumni
    Practices

    View All

    • Affordable Housing
    • Community Development Finance
    • Corporate & Finance
    • Cybersecurity & Privacy
    • Entertainment & Media
    • Environmental
    • Franchising & Distribution
    • Government Investigations & White Collar Defense
    • Healthcare
    • Intellectual Property
    • International Services
    • Labor, Employment, and Benefits
    • Litigation
    • Private Wealth & Advisory
    • Project Finance
    • Public Finance
    • Real Estate
    • Regulatory & Government Relations
    Industries

    View All

    • Aviation
    • Cannabis
    • Consumer
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Higher Education
    • Infrastructure
    • Manufacturing
    • Nonprofit Organizations
    • Real Estate
    • Sports & Stadiums
    • Technology
    Value-Added Services

    View All

    • Alternative Fee Arrangements

      Developing innovative pricing structures and alternative fee agreement models that deliver additional value for our clients.

    • Continuing Education

      Advancing professional knowledge and offering credits for attorneys, staff and other professionals.

    • Crisis Advisory

      Helping clients respond correctly when a crisis occurs.

    • DEI Strategic Services

      Providing our clients with legal, strategic, and practical advice to make transformational changes in their organizations.

    • eDiscovery

      Leveraging law and technology to deliver sound solutions.

    • Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

      We help clients create positive return on investments in people, products, and the planet.

    • Global Services

      Delivering seamless service through partnerships across the globe.

    • Innovation

      Leveraging leading-edge technology to guide change and create seamless, collaborative experiences for clients and attorneys.

    • IPED

      Industry-leading conferences focused on affordable housing, tax credits, and more.

    • Legal Project Management

      Providing actionable information to support strategic decision-making.

    • Legally Green

      Teaming with clients to advance sustainable projects, mitigate the effects of climate change, and protect our planet.

    • Nixon Peabody Trust Company

      Offering a range of investment management and fiduciary services.

    • NP Capital Connector

      Bringing together companies and investors for tomorrow’s new deals.

    • NP Second Opinion

      Offering fresh insights on cases that are delayed, over budget, or off-target from the desired resolution.

    • NP Trial

      Courtroom-ready lawyers who can resolve disputes early on clients’ terms or prevail at trial before a judge or jury.

    • Social Impact

      Creating positive impact in our communities through increasing equity, access, and opportunity.

    • Women in Dealmaking

      We provide strategic counsel on complex corporate transactions and unite dynamic women in the dealmaking arena.

    1. Home
    2. Insights
    3. Articles
    4. Restrictions on media access to protected health information during the COVID 19 pandemic

      Articles

    Article

    Restrictions on media access to protected health information during the COVID 19 pandemic

    May 8, 2020

    LinkedInX (Twitter)EmailCopy URL

    By Laurie Cohen, Valerie Montague and Jéna GradyJacalyn Smith

    On May 5, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance for covered health care providers regarding media access to patients’ protected health information (PHI) in compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

    On May 5, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance for covered health care providers regarding media access to patients’ protected health information (PHI) in compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The COVID-19 public health emergency has increased the presence of the media and film crews in hospitals and other covered health care facilities. The OCR guidance reminds covered health care providers that they are prohibited from giving the media access to any area of their facilities where patients’ PHI may be accessible without first obtaining written authorization from the patient.

    How does the COVID-19 pandemic impact PHI disclosure to the media under the HIPAA Privacy Rule?

    Expanding upon its earlier guidance, this recent OCR guidance highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic does not relax the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s restrictions on media access to patients’ PHI. The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects patients’ PHI in all forms, including written, electronic, oral, and other visual or audio forms. The OCR guidance reminds covered entities that the HIPAA Privacy Rule continues to require covered entities to obtain all applicable patients’ written authorization to disclose their PHI before allowing the media access to a health care facility unless an exception applies. Patients’ PHI, such as the patients’ name, medical record number, diagnosis, heart or lung function data, medications, and other communications with the patients’ doctor, is often present in a patient’s treatment room.

    As previously articulated in OCR enforcement actions against hospitals that allowed film crews on site prior to securing patient authorization, a patient’s presence in a hospital, skilled nursing facility, or other covered entity, including in an area designated to treat a specific disease or condition, like COVID-19, reveals the fact that the patient is receiving treatment by the facility, which is protected under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Therefore, it is insufficient for a health care provider to require the media to disguise a patient’s identity by blurring, pixelating, or altering the patient’s voice or appearance after recording the patient in a covered health care facility. Rather, as the recent guidance emphasizes, a covered entity must obtain a valid HIPAA authorization prior to giving the media access to areas where either patients or their PHI may be accessible.

    When can the media film in hospitals, skilled nursing homes, or other HIPAA covered entities?

    The media can record in areas of covered health care facilities when patients’ PHI may be accessible only when every patient who is in the filming area, who will be in the filming area, or whose PHI will be in the filming area has first provided a valid, signed HIPAA authorization. To account for the fact that patients are transferred between facility units and new patients are continually admitted, the entity should implement a process to allow it to confirm, on a particular day of filming and in an expedient manner, that each patient in the area being filmed executed an authorization.

    What should covered entities consider when the media enters their facilities?

    The OCR guidance warns that patients’ authorization does not completely protect a covered entity from liability. Rather, covered health care providers must have reasonable safeguards in place during filming to protect against unauthorized disclosure of PHI as well as opaque barriers that block the media’s access to PHI of patients who did not consent to disclosure of their PHI.

    Hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and other health care providers regulated under HIPAA also should ensure that any of their personnel who are processing media requests or who are assisting members of the media on-site at the facility are properly trained on the entity’s HIPAA policies and procedures, particularly those applicable to the provision of in-person access to reporters and other third parties.

    Practices

    Cybersecurity & PrivacyHealthcareHealthcare Regulatory & ComplianceHealth Information - Privacy, Security & Data Sharing
    The foregoing has been prepared for the general information of clients and friends of the firm. It is not meant to provide legal advice with respect to any specific matter and should not be acted upon without professional counsel. If you have any questions or require any further information regarding these or other related matters, please contact your regular Nixon Peabody LLP representative. This material may be considered advertising under certain rules of professional conduct.

    Subscribe to stay informed of the latest legal news, alerts, and business trends.Subscribe

    • People
    • Capabilities
    • Insights
    • About
    • Locations
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Alumni
    • Cookie Preferences
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Statement of Client Rights
    • Purchase Order Terms & Conditions
    • Nixon Peabody International LLC
    • PAL
    © 2025 Nixon Peabody. All rights reserved