WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) Jul 06 - In an attempt to dispel the confusion surrounding the new Department of Health and Human Services patient privacy protections, scheduled to be enacted in April 2003, the agency issued on Friday the first in a planned series of guidance documents. 

The HHS patient privacy protections were issued in December 2000 after Congress failed to enact legislative protections that it required of itself under a self-imposed 3-year deadline. 

Under that deadline agreement, which was incorporated into the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, HHS was required to propose patient protections via regulation if Congress failed to passed legislative protections by December 1999. 

But before those final guidelines were finally issued in April, HHS received more than 11,000 separate questions on topics ranging from parental rights to medical research, according to HHS figures. 

Therefore, HHS said in April when it issued the final rule that it would issue a series of guidance documents designed to clarify the rules before the they take full effect on April 14, 2003. The rules technically took effect in April 2001, but most covered entities were given until April 2003 to comply with the majority of the provisions. 

"This guidance is an opening step in helping physicians, healthcare providers and health plans understand their obligations to patients under the rule," said HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who released the guidance document. 

For example, he said, the guidance clarifies that hospitals will not be required under the regulations to build private, soundproof rooms to prevent conversations between doctors and patients from being overheard. The guidance also clarifies that friends and family members will still be allowed to pick up a patient's prescription, as often already occurs, Thompson said. 

Previously, Thompson said that he would propose modifications to ensure that pharmacists can fill a phoned-in prescription for a new patient, even when the pharmacist does not have the patient's signed consent on file. 

HHS said that its Office for Civil Rights is planning to conduct an extensive outreach program aimed at explaining what these rules mean for consumers. The agency explained that this consumer outreach program would take place in addition to the release of the planned guidance documents meant for healthcare providers. 

A full copy of the first HHS guidance document is available on the HHS Web site at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa.