Private practice therapists in Canada should be aware that PIPEDA applies to free consults.
Q: Do private practice therapists need consent to offer free consults?
Private practice therapists in Canada must be vigilant about getting consent to offer free consults because of PIPEDA, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. This is a Canadian law that shares some of the principles contained in the US law known as HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Acountability Act. The emphasis is on accountability. PIPEDA states that a private business must not collect names, addresses and background reports if the company does not have consent to have that information. Furthermore, a private business must make reasonable efforts to ensure that the individual is advised of the purposes for which his or her information will be used or disclosed, and state the purposes in a manner that the individual can reasonably understand.
Get Written Consent
Reduce your risk by getting written consent early in your interactions with the public. Create online referral and consent forms for your website. I teach private practice therapists how to do this in the AttractWell platform. People fill these in before they book any appointments. When an agency wants to set up a contract, ask the agency to direct the family to the URL with the consent form.
