National Pharmacy Chain Extends Protections for PHI on Insurance Cards
Covered Entity: Pharmacies
Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Safeguards

A pharmacy employee placed a customer's insurance card in another customer's prescription bag. The pharmacy did not consider the customer's insurance card to be protected health information (PHI). OCR clarified that an individual's health insurance card meets the statutory definition of PHI and, as such, needs to be safeguarded. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, the pharmacy revised its policies regarding PHI and retrained its staff. The revised policies are applicable to all individual stores in the pharmacy chain.