The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA)
Basic Test

1. You are working in the emergency department and see your neighbor has just arrived in labor. She’s only six months pregnant. What should you do?
   a. Contact the neighbor’s husband and tell him.
   b. Say nothing and pretend you don’t recognize your neighbor.
   c. Tell an emergency department nurse that you know how to reach the patient’s husband.
   d. None of the above.
   
   
2. When are you allowed to repeat private health information that you hear on the job?
   a. After you no longer work in the hospital
   b. After the patient dies
   c. Only if you know the patient won’t mind
   d. Only when it’s necessary to do your job
   
   
3. Your sister’s friend is having surgery at one of the local hospitals, but she is not sure which one. She wants to send flowers and she asks you to find out whether her friend is at your facility. What should you do?
   a. Tell your sister that you cannot find out for her, but that she can call the information desk and ask whether her friend is staying there.
   b. Search for the friend’s name in the computer database.
   c. Find a list of patients having surgery and look for the friend’s name.
   d. Ask all the nurses whether they have seen you sister’s friend.
   
   
4. You are cleaning up at a nurses’ station, and find an open recycling bin full of paper. You can see names, addresses, and numbers on the paper. What should you do?
   a. Nothing. You can’t be sure the information has anything to do with patients.
   b. Show it to your supervisor in case the information is private patient information.
   c. Ask the nurses who work there what information is on the paper.
   d. None of the above.
   
   
5. What question should you ask yourself before looking at patient information?
   a. Would the patient mind if I looked at this?
   b. Do I need to know this to do my job?
   c. Can anyone see what I’m doing?
   d. Am I curious?
   
   
6. Health care workers can go to jail for selling patient information.
   - True or false?
   
   
7. Doctors are permitted to see all information about every patient.
   - True or false?
   
   
8. Patient information should never be thrown away in an unlocked bin unless it has been shredded or destroyed.
   - True or false?
   
   
9. The privacy rules explained in this booklet shouldn’t be followed until April 2003.
   - True or false?
   
   
10. The privacy official enforces HIPAA privacy rules.
    - True or false?