HIPAA practice test for home health and hospice
Free HIPAA practice test for home health and hospice teams.
Your workplace is a patient's living room, your office is your car, and the chart travels with you. This free practice test covers the situations home health aides, visiting nurses, and hospice teams actually face: paper charts in transit, lost phones in the field, and family caregivers in the room. See where you stand before your next compliance training.
This quiz mixes home health and hospice field scenarios with core HIPAA questions every healthcare worker should know.
Question basis: federal HIPAA rules and HHS/OCR guidance. State privacy laws and your organization's policies may be stricter.
Free practice test
Start the HIPAA practice test for home health and hospice
20 multiple-choice questions across the Privacy Rule, Security Rule, breach notification, business associates, and real workplace scenarios. You see whether each answer is right as you go. At the end you unlock your scored results, full explanations, and a short study plan.
This practice test helps you study. It is not a substitute for completing the HIPAA course, passing its graded assessment, and earning a dated certificate.
Sample questions
HIPAA quiz questions and answers for home health and hospice
PHI on the Road
A visiting nurse has three more home visits today and keeps the completed paper charts from the morning in the car between stops. What is the best practice?
- Leave the charts on the passenger seat so they are easy to grab at each stop
- Store them in the trunk permanently and bring them into the office once a week
- Keep them out of sight in a locked trunk or container during the day and return them to the agency or another secure location that same day
- Photograph each chart on a personal phone and recycle the paper at the next gas station
Show answer
Correct answer: Keep them out of sight in a locked trunk or container during the day and return them to the agency or another secure location that same day
Paper PHI in a vehicle needs reasonable physical safeguards: locked, out of sight, and never left in the car overnight. Cars are a common theft target, and visible charts invite a preventable breach.
Devices in the Field
Between two afternoon visits, a home health aide realizes the agency phone with the visit documentation app is missing. What should the aide do first?
- Report the missing phone to the agency immediately so it can be locked or remotely wiped and the incident assessed
- Retrace the day's stops for a few days before worrying anyone
- Wait until the weekly team meeting to mention it
- Log into the documentation app from a family member's phone and keep working
Show answer
Correct answer: Report the missing phone to the agency immediately so it can be locked or remotely wiped and the incident assessed
Fast reporting lets the agency lock or wipe the device, check whether safeguards like encryption and screen locks protected the data, and start its breach evaluation. Every hour of delay increases the exposure and weakens the agency's response.
Family and Caregivers
During a hospice visit, the patient's daughter, who gives the morning medications, asks the nurse to walk her through the new dosing schedule. The patient is alert, has included the daughter in care discussions all along, and does not object. What may the nurse do?
- Refuse until the daughter is formally designated as a personal representative in writing
- Explain the dosing schedule, because HIPAA permits sharing information directly relevant to a family caregiver's involvement when the patient does not object
- Hand the daughter a sealed envelope that only the patient may open
- Direct the daughter to file a written records request with the agency
Show answer
Correct answer: Explain the dosing schedule, because HIPAA permits sharing information directly relevant to a family caregiver's involvement when the patient does not object
HIPAA lets providers share PHI with family and friends involved in a patient's care, limited to what is relevant to that involvement, when the patient agrees or does not object. Routine caregiver teaching does not require a signed authorization or personal representative status.
PHI Basics
Which of the following is protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA?
- A patient's first name stored next to their appointment diagnosis
- A hospital's published main phone number
- A fully de-identified research dataset with no identifiers
- A generic brochure about flu season
Show answer
Correct answer: A patient's first name stored next to their appointment diagnosis
PHI is individually identifiable health information transmitted or maintained by a covered entity or business associate, subject to the exclusions in 45 CFR 160.103. A name tied to a diagnosis identifies the person and reveals health information, so it qualifies.
PHI Basics
Which set of data points are all HIPAA identifiers that can make health information individually identifiable?
- Favorite color, shoe size, and zodiac sign
- Full name, medical record number, and email address
- Weather, traffic data, and store hours
- Stock prices, exchange rates, and tax brackets
Show answer
Correct answer: Full name, medical record number, and email address
HIPAA lists 18 identifiers including names, medical record numbers, and email addresses. When any of these are linked to health information, the data becomes PHI.
FAQ
HIPAA questions home health and hospice actually ask
Can I talk about a patient's condition with family members during a home visit?
Yes, in most day-to-day situations. HIPAA permits you to share information with family members and friends who are involved in the patient's care, as long as the patient agrees or does not object and you stick to what is relevant to their involvement, such as medication instructions or wound care steps. If the patient is confused or unresponsive, you can use professional judgment to decide whether sharing is in their best interest. What you cannot do is discuss the diagnosis with visitors or relatives the patient has not included in their care.
Is it a HIPAA violation to keep patient charts in my car between visits?
Not automatically, but you must use reasonable safeguards. Keep charts out of sight in a locked trunk or container, carry only what you need for the day, and return them to the agency or another secure location the same day instead of leaving them in the car overnight. If charts are stolen from a vehicle, the incident is presumed to be a breach of unsecured PHI, and the agency must assess it and may have to notify the affected patients. Report any loss or theft to your supervisor immediately.
Can hospice staff share information with family after a patient dies?
Yes, within limits. PHI stays protected for 50 years after death, but HIPAA allows staff to share information with family members or others who were involved in the patient's care or payment for care, limited to what is relevant to that involvement, unless the patient had expressed a contrary preference. So a hospice nurse can answer a caregiver's question about the medications that person was giving in the final days. Full access to the medical record itself requires the personal representative of the estate, such as an executor.
Do I need special apps to document visits or send wound photos from the field?
HIPAA does not name specific apps, but it requires safeguards for electronic PHI, and personal texting and camera rolls usually fail that test. Use the devices and secure apps your agency has approved, keep screen locks and encryption turned on, and never let wound photos or visit notes sit in a personal phone's photo library or a consumer group chat. If a device with patient information is lost or stolen in the field, report it right away so it can be locked or remotely wiped.
Keep going
HIPAA resources for home health and hospice
Guide
HIPAA Training for Home Health Aides
Role-based HIPAA training for aides and caregivers managing in-home documentation, mobile devices, and family communication.
Read moreGuide
HIPAA Training for Home Health
HIPAA compliance training built for home health agencies and hospice teams working in the field.
Read moreGuide
HIPAA Mobile Device Policy Guide
What a compliant mobile device policy covers: encryption, screen locks, remote wipe, and lost device reporting.
Read moreWant the broadest version? Take the general HIPAA practice test with the full 40-question pool.
From practice to proof