By Tim Buckland
The New Hampshire Union Leader
LACONIA, N.H. — A firefighter suffered minor injuries when the fire truck he was riding in hit another car head-on Wednesday afternoon.
Police Sgt. Dennis Ashley said the accident is under investigation and that the firefighter was taken to Lakes Region General Hospital with minor injuries. The driver of the car wasn’t injured, according to Ashley.
Fire Lt. Chad Vaillancourt refused to identify the injured firefighter, citing the privacy rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which went into effect in April 2003.
According to the federal Department of Health and Human Services website, a health care provider “who electronically transmits health information in connection with certain transactions, is a covered entity” under HIPAA. “These transactions include claims, benefit eligibility inquiries, referral authorization requests, or other transactions for which HHS has established standards under the HIPAA Transactions Rule.”
“I don’t know,” Vaillancourt said when asked whether the Laconia Fire Department electronically conducts transactions, such as billing or receiving payments for its health care services. “All the billing goes through the hospital.”
According to the Health and Human Services website, if the hospital acts as a third-party billing vendor for the fire department’s billing services and conducts transactions electronically, the fire department would be a covered entity under the law.
Vaillancourt said the truck, stationed at Weirs Beach, was taken out of service for Wednesday night to evaluate the damage. Firefighters were responding to a call and were turning left from Elm Street to North Main Street when the accident happened.
He said the fire department has the ability to control the traffic lights at some intersections, but not at the Elm and North Main intersection. He said he wasn’t on the truck at the time of accident and didn’t know whether the driver of the truck or car was facing a red light.
Union Leader staff reporter Paula Tracy contributed to this report.
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