Form Submission | Important Information

  • HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
  • HIPAA was passed by the U.S. government in 1996 in order to establish privacy and security protections for
    health information
  • Information stored on our computers is encrypted
  • Most popular email services (ex. Hotmail®, Gmail®, Yahoo®) do not utilize encrypted email
  • When we send you an email, or you send us an email, the information that is sent is not encrypted. This
    means a third party may be able to access the information and read it since it is transmitted over the Internet.
    In addition, once the email is received by you, someone may be able to access your email account and read it.
  • Email is a very popular and convenient way to communicate for a lot of people, so in their latest modification to
    the HIPAA act, the federal government provided guidance on email and HIPAA
  • The information is available in a pdf (page 5634) on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website
    ‐ http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR‐2013‐01‐25/pdf/2013‐01073.pdf
  • The guidelines state that if a patient has been made aware of the risks of unencrypted email, and that same
    patient provides consent to receive health information via email, then a health entity may send that patient
    personal medical information via unencrypted email

UNENCRYPTED EMAIL
We do not accept PHI through the general contact form on our website. In the event that you disregard the instructions and submit the form acknowledging that you understand the risks of unencrypted email and do hereby give permission to Methodist McKinney Hospital to send me personal health information via unencrypted email.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALLOW UNENCRYPTED EMAIL

  1.  Do not submit your information over our general contact form. Checking the “True: ”  box prior to submitting your email means you acknowledge the risk of submitting personal health information via email.
  2.  Give the hospital a call. We are standing by to answer any questions that you may have.