Question: If it is a doctor outside of our hospital who will be accessing our EHR do we still need to sign a business agreement?
Answer: Doctors are not Business Associates. Barring very unusual circumstances, doctors are always Trading Partners with hospitals. If a doc is accessing the hospital’s EMR, he is (or certainly should be) accessing the PHI contained in it for those patients under his care that he has admitted to that hospital. As such, the hospital and the doc will be billing for their respective services to the same patient. This relationship, as a rule, makes them Trading Partners. There is an agreement type for this relationship, but it is NOT a BAA. Every doc with privileges to a given hospital has signed this other type of agreement.
Legal Disclaimer:
The information contained in this website may or may not reflect the most current legal developments; accordingly, information on this website is not promised or guaranteed to be correct or complete, and should not be considered an indication of future results. Supremus Group expressly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any or all the contents of this website.
As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, nothing provided herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel. The materials on this website do not constitute legal advice, contact your attorney for a legal consultation.