Do you remember how excited you were when you heard about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)?
Yeah, me neither. But, HIPAA has impacted all of us in many ways we may not even realize.
Companies had to become compliant with the HIPAA Security Rule by April 21, 2005. That was nearly 14 years ago. The whole reason HIPAA was introduced related to the reality that all medical records were maintained in an electronic (and hence portable) format. It was a common sense measure of security, but it has had some unintended consequences.
I remember when I first became aware of HIPAA while working as the publisher of the La Porte County Herald-Argus in Northwest Indiana. We had a corporate attorney meet with our management team and tell us that management needed to handle any health-related issues with employees differently. From that point forward, if an employee was diagnosed with cancer or any other illness, management could no longer openly express sympathy to the employee in the presence of other employees. We could no longer take the lead on sending around a card to collect money and show our support. Management was put on ice, which made us look insensitive to say the least. It created some awkwardness at times.
We had over 70 employees at our newspaper, and I knew each employee at the level of knowing each employee’s spouse’s name, the names of their children and their pets, and their hobbies. HIPAA bothered me, because I truly cared about the people I worked with each and every day.
Birth Announcements
At the same time HIPAA was introduced, I noticed a dramatic change in another area of our newspaper — reflected in our content.
With the introduction of HIPAA, we saw a 70% decrease in birth announcements published in the newspaper.
Our daughter was born at the hospital in La Porte in 2004, and I recall the hospital staff presenting a document for us to sign in which we selected the newspapers in which we wanted our birth announcement to appear. The hospital took care of administering that information to each newspaper for us. We didn’t have to do anything beyond that point. That was wonderful, because I have to tell you I don’t think I experienced a full night of sleep for the next seven months. I’m pretty sure I resembled a zombie at work.
Our son was born in 2007, in the post-HIPAA era, and the hospital staff gave us the same document they gave us when our daughter was born in 2004. However, this time they said we’d have to submit the information to each newspaper ourselves.
After our son was born, I asked our lifestyles editor at the newspaper how many fewer birth announcements we were publishing compared to the pre-HIPAA era. Based on the comparison of the birth of our two children in 2004 and 2007, I had a pretty good idea of why we were seeing fewer birth announcements. Parents were too exhausted and busy to submit a birth announcement, and the hospitals had their hands tied. Sandra, our lifestyle editor, came back with a number: 70% less.
Free in the FCJ?
Newspapers have seen a dramatic decrease in published birth announcements.
It’s not because there are fewer babies born each year. I did some research, and our population is growing 2 to 3 million per year. Births are exceeding deaths.
Obviously, HIPAA has discouraged hospitals and even parents from submitting birth announcements to newspapers to share the good news. It’s a restricted chore.
Historically, the Fillmore County Journal has always charged for birth announcements if they include a photograph.
We have charged for birth announcements, but we haven’t charged for obituaries, engagements, weddings, and military service.
By the way, to my knowledge, we are the last newspaper that doesn’t charge for obituaries in all of Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa. Most weekly newspapers charge upwards of $115 per obituary, and I have even heard that one daily newspaper in our region charges upwards of $400 per obituary.
We have always felt that publishing obituaries is a matter of public service.
Whenever I read an obituary, I’m always amazed at how many people are related to people I don’t know were related. I’d really like to have a flowchart to connect all of the dots of who is related, but that might be incomprehensible.
As I’ve heard from many readers, “you charge for when someone is born but not for when they die.”
That has been true up until now.
As of this moment, all birth announcements will be published with a photo for free. And, to my knowledge, we may be the last newspaper in Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa publishing birth announcements for free.
Despite the HIPAA odds against us, we are hoping that parents (and probably proud grandparents) will share the good news about their growing families.
Check out our Social Scenes section in today’s newspaper, and you’ll see a birth announcement. We hope that this is the beginning of many more.
Please send your birth announcements to news@fillmorecountyjournal.com, and we’ll be happy to share the good news!
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