Confidentiality

Regence is committed to the highest level of confidentiality with our members' personal and medical information, and actively enforces the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. Our employees are held to high standards in accessing and maintaining confidential information as outlined in our corporate and departmental policies and procedures.

You are permitted to disclose protected health information to Regence for treatment, payment and health care operations if you and Regence have or have had a relationship with the member. Generally, an authorization from the member is not required for disclosures made for these purposes. Disclosures of protected health information must be limited to the minimum amount necessary, except for treatment purposes.

There may be times when medical data is measured to determine if additional services or benefit changes should be considered. Such information is reviewed within the guidelines of our corporate confidentiality policy and is not shared in a patient-identifiable format without our members' consent.

As a Regence participating provider, it is your responsibility to abide by all applicable provisions of the law concerning the confidentiality of patient information and records. Regence members are informed of our commitment to protect the confidentiality of their information and records. The following is Regence's policy regarding patient confidentiality.

Members have the right to obtain and inspect a copy of their personal information that we or our business associates maintain. Requests should be sent to the address on the member ID card.

Regence collects and analyzes claim information to perform utilization management, case management and other clinical activities. The data is used to identify areas of improvement for the care and service members receive.