Dive Brief:

• Although reports say the Obama administration applied a unique waiver to HIPAA provisions, per Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer's request, intending to expedite information sharing with the family members and friends of victims of the recent mass shooting, such move was not made, according to a Modern Healthcare report, because it would have been unnecessary considering the federal privacy law permits doctors to disclose patient information under certain circumstances.
• In the event when the White House and HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell jointly declare a disaster or a public health emergency, then a waiver on sanctions and penalties against hospitals may be applied for failing to comply with five patient privacy regulations outlined in a bulletin from HHS' Office of Civil Rights (OCR). 
• The last time HIPAA provisions were waived, in its 20 years of existence, was in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, privacy lawyer and former chief privacy officer at HHS told Modern Healthcare.

Dive Insight:

Physicians are allowed to share information with a patient's family members or friends under HIPAA, though with caution. Most doctors, however, default err on the side of maintaining silence. 

"There may have been confusion at the White House this morning," an Orlando official told Politico Pulse, adding, "it was important to tell the people in Orlando quickly that HIPAA was not something they needed to worry about today."

The provisions that may be waived include the requirement to obtain patients' consent to speak with family members or friends involved in their care and the need to honor patients' requests to opt out of the facility. ​The patients' right to request that communications remain confidential could also be waived.

Also the waiver would only apply in the ER and for the specifiied period in the public health emergency declaration; to hospitals that have instituted a disaster protocol. The waiver would apply to all patients at such hospitals. The waiver would last a maximum of 72 hours from the time a hospital implements a disaster protocol.