CBIS Ethical Standards and Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CBIS professional discovers that a colleague is billing for services not rendered to a brain injury client. The most appropriate first step is to:
- Ignore it as an internal matter
- Report directly to law enforcement
- Address the concern through the organization's internal compliance process (Correct answer)
- Confront the colleague publicly
Correct answer: Address the concern through the organization's internal compliance process
Ethical codes require addressing suspected fraud through proper internal channels before escalating externally.
Question 2: When documenting a brain injury client's progress, ethical documentation practice requires that notes be:
- Written days after the session to allow reflection
- Accurate, timely, and objective (Correct answer)
- Shared only with the billing department
- Kept exclusively in the clinician's personal files
Correct answer: Accurate, timely, and objective
Ethical documentation must be accurate, objective, and completed in a timely manner to protect client welfare.
Question 3: A CBIS specialist works in a rural area where they are the only brain injury professional available. A client requests a social relationship after discharge. The specialist should:
- Accept because rural settings create exceptions to boundary rules
- Decline and refer the client elsewhere immediately
- Carefully consider the boundary implications and consult ethics guidance before proceeding (Correct answer)
- Agree if the client has no other social support
Correct answer: Carefully consider the boundary implications and consult ethics guidance before proceeding
Rural settings may create unavoidable dual roles, but the specialist must carefully evaluate ethics guidance and document the decision-making process.
Question 4: Under HIPAA, a brain injury specialist may share a client's protected health information with family members only when:
- The family member pays for services
- The client provides written authorization or the disclosure meets a HIPAA exception (Correct answer)
- The specialist believes the family needs to know
- The client is present during the conversation
Correct answer: The client provides written authorization or the disclosure meets a HIPAA exception
HIPAA requires explicit client authorization or a recognized exception before disclosing PHI to family members.
Question 5: A CBIS professional feels personally uncomfortable treating a client whose TBI resulted from a crime they committed. The ethical obligation is to:
- Refuse treatment based on personal values
- Provide treatment without addressing the discomfort
- Seek supervision or consultation and ensure continuity of care if transfer is needed (Correct answer)
- Report the client's criminal history to authorities
Correct answer: Seek supervision or consultation and ensure continuity of care if transfer is needed
Professionals must seek supervision when personal values create potential bias, and must ensure the client is not abandoned if transfer is warranted.
Question 6: Which principle best describes the ethical obligation to provide brain injury services that produce demonstrable benefits and minimize risk?
- Autonomy
- Beneficence and nonmaleficence (Correct answer)
- Justice
- Fidelity
Correct answer: Beneficence and nonmaleficence
Beneficence (doing good) and nonmaleficence (avoiding harm) together govern the obligation to provide effective, safe services.
Question 7: A brain injury client's legal guardian requests information the client has explicitly stated they do not want shared. The CBIS specialist should:
- Automatically comply because the guardian has full legal authority
- Refuse all communication with the guardian
- Balance the guardian's legal authority with the client's expressed wishes and consult relevant statutes (Correct answer)
- Wait until the client changes their mind
Correct answer: Balance the guardian's legal authority with the client's expressed wishes and consult relevant statutes
While guardians have legal authority, specialists must understand the scope of guardianship and respect client dignity within legal constraints.
CBIS Ethical Standards and Practice 2
A CBIS professional discovers that a colleague is billing for services not rendered to a brain injury client.
The most appropriate first step is to: