INTAKE FORMS:

a HIPAA tale or 2

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

Have you ever wondered about the questions on intake forms?

Some questions in some professional spaces the personal information you are asked to provide is self-evident. It makes sense that your physician asks about your health. It makes sense that your dentist wants to know about your medications.

Massage therapists also ask health questions, so that we place our hands safely on your body. Knee and hip replacements seem self-evident. Yet, pacemakers and insulin pumps attachments are areas to avoid.

Massage therapists also ask about current medications, to conduct and conclude a session safely. A client on blood thinners may require a different protocol getting back onto two feet after lying down for a period of time.

Massage therapists also ask about allergies. If a client is allergic to nuts, then the client may have a reaction to shea butter, a common ingredient in lotions.

Also on behalf of client safety, massage therapists ask for emergency contact information should the need arise to bring the specified person into the practitioner-client relationship.

Then there are the consent agreements, disclaimers, and rights to acknowledge that the client has the capacity to engage the practitioner for a service, that the explicit service…