Health Care Professional
Health care providers are professionals within the health care business consisting of doctors, nurses, therapists and other collateral professionals. A clinical psychologist is generally thought of as a health care provider. A podiatrist is a health care provider. A chiropractor is a health care provider. The status of being a health care provider in Virginia is important because it brings that person within the scope of coverage of the Virginia Medical Malpractice Act which provides certain protections to health care providers.
Health care providers, in addition, are covered by the HIPPA statute which is a federal statute that provides ceratin protections to patients in terms of confidentiality.
