Customer support account with restricted patient data access

#The present disclosure relates to a system and method for providing customer support by dynamically accessing a user's account that is modified to restrict access to private data of the user.

#Title II of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) includes a Privacy Rule. The HIPAA Privacy Rule regulates the use and disclosure of certain information held by “covered entities” including health insurers, medical service providers and others that engage in certain transactions. The Privacy Rule establishes regulations for the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI) regarding health status, provision of health care, or payment for health care associated with an individual or patient. PHI covers, among other information, any part of an individual's medical record or payment history. A covered entity may disclose PHI to facilitate treatment, payment, or health care operation or if the covered entity has obtained authorization from the individual.

#Additionally, when a covered entity discloses any PHI, it must make a reasonable effort to disclose only the minimum necessary information required to achieve its purpose. Increasingly, many patients, especially patients with chronic conditions that require daily management, such as diabetes, participate in health care management plans that include using software to manage, monitor, log, update and transfer data to a health management service or a participating health provider. Typically, a user (patient or health professional) interacts with software provided by the health management service or other health professional. The software can be in the form of an application or program which resides in a computer device (PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone or other hand held device) of the user or communicates with a web service of a health management service or provider by means of a web browser of the user. When an error occurs during the use of the application, the user can communicate by telephone or e-mail, or other digital communication with a support service. The support person that receives the call may not, however, be able to reproduce the error to determine the cause of the problem without seeing what the user sees and without tracing the user's actions. Permission to see private information of the user must be sought and saved in an audit log according to the PHI rule of HIPAA. Even when such permission is received, the experience may not be comfortable for the user and support member.

#The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

#FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a system for customer support according to the present teachings;

#FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow chart for a support session;

#Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

#The following description is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses. For purposes of clarity, the same reference numbers will be used in the drawings to identify similar elements.

#Referring to FIG. 1, a diagram for an exemplary system 100 for providing dynamic customer support with restricted access to the private data of a user is illustrated. For clarity, the system 100 is described in the context of health management, such as diabetes, but the present teachings are applicable to any other systems in which a user needs customer support for a computer-implemented application from a provider of the service for the application without having to share certain private information.