The HIPAA Authorization Form and Effects on Survey Response Rates, Nonresponse Bias, and Data Quality

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Abstract
There has been speculation that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has muted participation in research but little direct evidence to substantiate those claims exists. To evaluate the effects of including a HIPAA authorization form (HAF) on multiple measures of survey performance. A community survey of Olmsted County, Minnesota residents conducted between September 2005 and April 2006. A total of 6939 cases were randomly assigned to 2 experimental conditions where half of the subjects received a 1-page HAF (n = 3469) and the other half did not (n = 3470). Response rate, nonresponse bias, and data quality. At the end of data collection, a response rate of 39.8% was observed in the HAF condition and 55.0% in the No HAF condition (P Conclusions: Inclusion of a minimally burdensome version of the HAF reduced survey response rates by up to 15 percentage points. This could have implications for a study's statistical power. There was little evidence that the form affected nonresponse bias or data quality.