Which disclosure is permitted without patient authorization?

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Disclosures of a patient’s protected health information without their authorization are allowed when they support care and the business side of care—specifically for treatment, payment, and health care operations. Treating means sharing information with other clinicians involved in the patient’s care to coordinate services. Payment covers activities like billing and obtaining reimbursement. Health care operations include internal activities such as quality assessment, case management, credentialing, and audits that help manage and improve care, all within the minimum necessary use.

That’s why this option is permitted without explicit authorization. The other scenarios involve uses that typically require the patient’s consent: marketing information to friends would use PHI for marketing; sharing PHI with an employer would reveal health information to a third party without consent; and sharing data for research without authorization would generally require either de-identification or a formal authorization or IRB waiver.