HIMT: Health Information Management: HIMT Legal Assignment

Resources for students in CSCC's HIMT program, with special emphasis on the legal assignment for HIMT 1133.

Understanding the Law

The law is a complicated subject, and understanding legalese often requires specialized education.  Here are some items from our collection that can provide assistance.

Assignment: Researching Ohio and Federal Law (HIMT 1133)

Your instructor will provide the details and requirements of this assignment, but these vetted online resources should be of considerable help in researching the law as it pertains to release of information and health records!

Ohio Revised Code: Ohio's state laws, based on acts passed by the Ohio General Assembly.  The Code is broken down by broad categories called Titles, which cover areas such as state government, elections, and education.  Each Title is then broken up into Chapters, which in turn are broken into Sections.

The notation for the Ohio Revised Code describes the Title, Chapter, and Section of a law.  For instance, 3109.01 is read:

Title 31, Chapter 09, Section 01

To make things more complicated, the entire number before the period is often referred to as the Chapter, so the same law would be read aloud as:

Chapter 3109, Section 01

The important thing to remember for navigation purposes is that the first number(s) of the notation often tell you the Title the law falls under, the next numbers are the Chapter, and anything after the period is the Section.

Your teacher will ask you to seek out several different sections of the Ohio Revised Code.  You can enter the notation into the search field at the upper right of the ORC website, or you can navigate by clicking on the correct Title and Chapter, and then scrolling for the section.  Part of the assignment is learning how to navigate the ORC, so we will not be linking directly to the laws here.  However, for your convenience, here are the numbers and subjects of the laws you will be asked to find and read:

3109.01 Age of majority

3701.262 Cancer incidence surveillance system rules

3701.243 Disclosing of HIV test results or diagnosis

3701.74 Patient or patient's representative to submit request to examine or obtain copy of medical record

3701.741 Fees for providing copies of medical records

2305.24 Information furnished to quality assurance or utilization committee to be confidential

5122.31 Confidentiality

Remember, you can search for the entire notation (such as 3109.01) in the search box, or navigate using the table of contents.

Ohio Administrative Code: put simply, this is the means by which the rules in the Ohio Revised Code are administered as laws.  For simplicity's sake, it is recommended that you simply enter the notation you are told to find in the search box at the upper right of the website.

5122-27-08 Release of information

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