Patient Privacy Law: What Does it Mean for Produce Prescription Projects? 

Like many organizations innovating to address health-related social needs, Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) Produce Prescription grantees find themselves at the intersection of health care and social services delivery. As a result, many projects grapple with a myriad of questions about patient privacy laws and their impact on information sharing, operations, research and evaluation, and meeting the needs of project participants. 

CHLPI partnered with the GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center (NTAE) to fill the need for information, education, and creative solutions so that projects are empowered to navigate privacy obligations. We produced a series of five briefs that explores several foundational topics, providing practical tips and tools along the way. The topics are: 

• Introduction to Patient Privacy Laws for Produce Prescription Grantees
  This brief introduces patient privacy laws and how they impact produce prescription projects.

• Developing HIPAA-Compliant Approaches to Information Sharing
  This brief discusses different approaches to structuring the collection and dissemination of participant information in a manner compliant with federal patient privacy law.

• HIPAA, Program Evaluation, and Research
  This brief lays out various approaches to navigating federal patient privacy law for program evaluation and research.

• Business Associate Arrangements
  Readers will learn more about Business Associate Arrangements—a common but resource intensive approach to structuring information sharing from health care providers to third parties.

• Developing a Privacy Program
  The final resource in the series, this brief reviews key technological and other considerations for developing a privacy program. 

Even when a project is not subject to legal obligations of privacy and confidentiality, our guiding principles for the voluntary adoption of a privacy program and other resources can help build and maintain trust between initiatives and the participants they serve.

This work is supported by Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program grant no. 2019-70030-30415/project accession no. 1020863 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.