Neal Explains New Policy On Student-Athlete Injury Reports To Local Media
5/2/2003 3:00:34 PM | Men's Basketball, Football
Keeping with its inherent concern for the privacy and best interests of its student-athletes, the SU Athletic Department is instituting a new policy regarding the release of specific medical information of SU student-athletes. Head Athletic Trainer Tim Neal explained the new policy to members of the local media at the Stevenson Educational Center in Manley Field House on Wednesday, April 30.
"We would love to help you do your job," Neal said to the members of the media in a seminar designed to provide details regarding this new policy. "I'm appreciative of that. You are trying to get information out to people.
"But during this day and age, and the trend of becoming more confidential with people’s medical information, we have been advised to limit the information and delete specific information on an injury to a student-athlete."
No member of the SU Athletic Department will be able to communicate any specific health information about a student-athlete without implicit consent from the student-athlete under the new policy. It is an issue many athletic departments will be forced to confront around the country and it could certainly limit detailed reporting of injuries by any media outlet.
The former practice of releasing medical information at SU was like that of many other schools and conferences in collegiate athletics. All information concerning the specifics of an injury were provided by the head trainer, team physician, head coach or athletic communications office. It was not uncommon to see something such as this in the newspaper:
Joe Athlete's MRI has revealed he has a torn his ACL and medial meniscus in his right knee. He will have surgery next week.
Under the new policy, only the name of the student-athlete, area of injury and participation status can be revealed:
Joe Athlete has a sprained knee. He will not participate in practice next week.
"Given today's environment of enhanced privacy of an individual’s health information, a policy was required to meet the needs of our student-athletes," Neal said. "This policy was developed under the recommendation of our legal counsel."
This course of action comes on the heels of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which many healthcare providers were required to comply with on April 14, 2003. HIPAA, which was developed by the Department of Health and Human Services, is the first federal privacy standard designed to protect patients’ medical records and gives them more autonomy over how their records can be disclosed.
"Around the nation for the last six months, a lot of people have been in a panic or ignored the issue, hoping it will go away," Neal said. "But the issue is here today and we have to deal with it."
Although HIPAA protects patients' privacy by limiting the ways health plans, pharmacies, hospitals and other healthcare givers can use patients’ medical information, the consequences of the act will unintentionally have an effect on athletics, Neal said.
For most of the last year, Neal has been involved with Bond, Schoeneck & King law firm and the SU Risk Management Department to discuss how this issue applies to the SU Sports Medicine Department. It was determined that the SU Sports Medicine Department is not a HIPAA entity and thus not subject to adherence of its provisions.
"However, the SU Athletic Department has now amended its current policies to be more cognizant of the privacy of our student-athletes’ health information," Neal said. "This is the trend that will be forming nationally."
