After visit summary from an online Therapy portal was sent to a complete stranger. I found this out because they contacted me on Facebook to let me know, I am just checking that this is a HIPAA violation before I go and file a complaint. (I’ve already given the company over a month 1/2 and they have not responded to me and I have been following up weekly)
I work with medical records including patients insurance, medications used, medical reports for ambulance trips, and as much information that is needed for billing an ambulance ride. They just recently added a “AI assist” button at the top of the page on ImageTrend, the program we use to work with the reports. I have not used it because I don’t believe that’s ethical + I don’t need assistance doing my job.
My question is, does that violate hipaa to have ai assist with medical records with no information of if it automatically deletes information it learns about patients, etc?
Hello! So today I was terminated over a false HIPAA violation report made from a former friend. When I was let go they did not provide any information if they had evidence backing the claim nor the personnel file I requested. They let me know I could take it up with HR and told to submit a grievance through email. They provided paperwork for me to sign which I refused. I have documented the times and dates I’ve been harassed and have proof of said person threatening to cause a disturbance at my job. I don’t plan on fighting this claim to work at the same company again but I do want to report how this is a wrongful termination. Any advice on what I can do? :/
I live in Louisiana. I went to the ER with my friend & her boyfriend.
she had an upper respiratory infection.
I was in the room with her, we were in & out.
I talked briefly with the doctor & nurses about what’s been going on with her & they gave her input.
About an hour after we left, my friend gets a text from one of the nurses there asking if he can have my number.
she instantly felt violated & so did I.
what can I do legally? I know this is a MAJOR VIOLATION OF HIPPA.
can I sue in the state of Louisiana????
I went to a surgeon for a consult and he was very nice but said I had to have a specific test before insurance would pay for my surgery. He saw the lady that does appointments in the hallway and told her my name and she asked my birthday and what test I needed. There were other patients present. I felt like she should have taken me to her desk. The test is a body sensitive one. If you know what I mean. I’m old and that stuff bothers me. Is this a violation? I won’t do anything about it but I’m just curious.
To sum up my situation:
I’m launching a web-based documentation assistant geared towards PT, OT, and SLP therapists.
My service is designed to never handle any Private Health Information (PHI), but it does allow users to input customized templates. Therapy notes don’t contain PHI in the templates themselves, but I also can’t directly control what a user will put in.
I have built a PHI detector that will detect double surnames for top 1000 names in US census data and any suspicious strings of numbers (DOB,SSN, etc) which will prevent saving that information.
I have an indemnification clause and it’s all over the Terms and conditions that this tool is never designed to handle PHI.
There is no reason for them to input PHI, but I want to be covered if they do. Am I overplaying the risk here? Any advice in this situation?
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Hello, I live in Texas and work as a receptionist in an ophthalmology office. My boss frequently tells me to have patients send me pics of their eyes to my personal cell phone so she can see them or will request that if I call a patient off our work phone and they don't answer she wants me to text them off my personal cell phone. Is this allowed?
Is it hipaa violation if faxing something back without a fax cover sheet?
Lately this lady at our job started scanning all of our faxes and is saying it is a HIPAA violation. For example pharmacies always fax over script clarifications without a cover sheet, the dr will then write whatever needs to be clarified and we just fax it back the same way it was faxed to us. We are now being required to fax everything with a cover sheet
I need someone who knows what they are talking about.
Google workspace with a baa removed the contacts portion of their workspace to be covered under the baa
I don’t have the money to pay monthly for another app -
I want to download strongbox to keep client contacts - it’s a strictly offline app, with biometrics to open the app - I have mdm on my phone, adp turned on and biometrics to open my phone and 1 min timeout/ clients are legally allowed to have sms reminders and notifications so I have to coordinate care that way when they send me text I don’t have to sift through everyone’s chart to see who I am talking to
So my question is my setup hipaa compliant and or defensible?
I’m kinda solo - strictly remote - my org jsut says “stay hipaa compliant” and we have a byod policy
hi there, what do you all think about the following: I discovered that a coworker, another provider at my clinic, copied and pasted my entire mental health intake note without giving me credit. The provider signed the intake My initial intake note is about three years old, the provider just copied it. The provider added a diagnosis and clicked on two or three additional boxes. About 98% are copied, verbatim, without any quote or indication that I wrote the note and did the intake. Besides the fact, that I feel upset, I am not sure whether I need to report this. I am mainly concerned about patient care, since my evaluation has been done three years ago and may not reflect the current state of this patient. Any thoughts are appreciated. very much.
The person involved in a highly publicized incident needed medical care. I was informed recently that the medical professional that was involved in this care shared details with their spouse who then shared with their friends.
I'm troubled by this 1) it's a HIPAA violation and 2) this is a very serious matter and the medical professional involved was not qualified in this field.
I'm trying to determine my course of action. Do I contact the medical cotp with my concerns?
hi, i recently took an ADHD test at a mental health clinic. im 19 years old for context so im a legal adult. for some reason, they sent my recent billing ($903) to my dads email who was unaware i even took a test in the first place and had no intention of telling him. they didn’t notify me at all even though im 19 and take care of my own bills and stuff. he called the clinic asking what this charge is about and they told him the testing i had done, when, timing, where, etc and basically told him everything but my diagnosis. did they violate my hipaa rights and what can i do about it??
Hi, I (16f) recently had surgery and after the surgery on of the nurses said some stuff that I had privately told the doctors.
When the docs were asking about health and habits pre-op I had requested my parents to not be in the room and they were not. I told the doctors about my habits -a little drinking, smoking weed, and smoking cigs/vaping- all of these habits were in social settings with other people. I am aware of the dangers and that I'm a minor and shouldn't be indulging (spare me the lecture). I also specifically said that I was working on quitting the vaping and requested the information to stay confidential between my doctors and me. The doctors mentioned to not smoke anything the 2 weeks following the surgery and I said I alr knew about that. I also didnt inhale anything the 3 days leading up to the surgery.
When I woke up from surgery I was in the room with my parents and a nurse. The nurse was explaining the basic surgery aftercare and schedule (tonsillectomy) and then turned to me and reinforced that I shouldn't vape. She then talked about how she "knows it seems fun, but you need to stop" and gave me a 10 minute spiel about the dangers all in-front of my parents.
I'm wondering if the comments this nurse made are some kind of HIPAA violation. I understand that as a minor my parents can have access to my medical records and I have signed paperwork giving them the rights to access my charts. However I expressly asked the doctors to be quiet about my habits.
I feel conflicted because my parents are mad at me, but also upset about the nurse telling the information. She was coming from a good place and discussed her own struggles with nicotine addiction. I don't know how to approach this entire situation. I feel really hurt by the nurse for sharing my information without my consent.
So I guess the conclusion is, was this a HIPAA violation?
A few weeks ago, I was seen in an urgent care following being physically assaulted as well as in an car accident. When I was triaged the nurse took vitals, and asked what I was there for. I explained the entire story from start to finish. I was out at an event with a friend she got too intoxicated caused a scene. I drove us home (in her vehicle had to take her keys) while driving I explained to this friend that her behavior was out of line. She became aggravated asking me to pull the car over. From there I was physically assaulted. Following the assault I stood outside of the car where I was pushed inside and the “friend” took off driving with me NOW in the passenger. She began speeding and crashed us. In which I believe was done on purpose. The triage nurse wrote this down in her clinical notes. Now when I saw the actual doctor he came in the room and said I read everything that happened wow that’s crazy you don’t have to explain, but what is your main complaint or what’s bothering you. I informed him that during that crash I hit my head which I’m experiencing headaches. IN the clinical notes the doctor wrote I didn’t remember any details due to being intoxicated and I wasn’t in a motor vehicle crash MVC. I was never intoxicated. I never reiterated all of the details because he said I didn’t have to explain he read everything so in my mind he didn’t want the drawn out story he just wanted to treat me asap and move on. So I’m confused on why he wrote what I assume is his opinion in my clinical notes? Why does he have the right to write what he assumes? I’m disgusted.
Went to a city hospital for scheduled appointment at specialist. It was on an upper floor. Took an elevator. Checked in. Giving nurse ID, insurance, paperwork.
Nurse calls me back, past office, in hall on way to room, security jogs up from behind. Stops infront me, stretches his arms wide, and says ‘you have to leave!’ Nurse tells him he can’t do this. But this security guard wouldnt let me by. He was extremely rude and aggressive. Standing very close to me, and saying Leave! Matching my every step. Nurse follows me to the elevator speaking out against the security guard. We ride the elevator, get to the main door, he’s wanting my ID, asking my name, and saying he’ll ‘let me in’ if I give him my information to be stored in their database. I keep walking out.
Report of event was made online to HIPAA. Never heard back. What do I do? They deny me access for any appointment at the main door. They are the only provider for 100miles. All my kids had to change doctors.
I have done nothing ever to anywhere for this to be happening. Beyond that, it’s my understanding I should not have to give ID to security and police to gain access to my doctors office.
My mother reached out to her therapist to reschedule an appointment. She received a message back about having an unpaid appointment on file and needing a guardian to pay before she could be rescheduled. My mom thought it was weird considering she paid her previous appointments and doesn’t have a guardian. My mom pointed out these to the therapist, the therapist apologized for the mix up and was able to reschedule. Does this count as a violation?
Sorry if this is not right sub. Don’t know where else to look when proper channels have been followed to no avail. I know this was discussed on Facebook but I can’t find the post anymore.
The hospital privacy office absolutely refuses to do anything about an employee (that was in our friend circle) violating HIPAA rights of multiple patients. We have clear evidence of texts and recordings of several pieces of HIPAA information from patients at a local hospital being revealed. Some patients even passed. It’s disgusting that they refuse to do anything and even let the problem employee pick up extra shifts while under investigation.
What will get justice? Any advice appreciated. It is one of the larger hospitals in the DFW Texas area and I think it has a board of directors. OCR complaints were filed but it takes awhile to get reviewed.
A hospital employee has a family member who becomes a patient in the hospital where the employee works. The employee is not part of the patient's care team and doesn't access the patient's hospital records (though they have permission from the patient to look at their online patient portal and probably do this). The employee is the patient's caregiver and medical POA and remains with the patient throughout their hospitalization, communicating with providers and advocating for the patient. The patient welcomes the prayers and encouragement of friends and family, so with the patient's permission, the employee lets friends and family know of patient's condition, treatment, and updates, via phone calls, texts, and FB messenger. Any HIPAA issues with any of this?
I have a complicated relationship with my mother. I moved out of state five years, and left a large bag of items at my mothers house (where I was moving to was a small college living situation). One of those items were very old medical records. I needed my shot records as I'm considering further my education. I texted my mom and told her to look in the bag for a manila envelope. I specifically said to look for a blue piece of paper (official state issued shot record). She knows exactly what it looks like. Basically, all she had to do was open the envelope and quickly skim for a blue paper.
I went on about my day yesterday, and I randomly get a text containing pictures of the copied version of my shot record ( think I made copies years ago), as well as two pages of sensitive STI testing results from 18 years ago. Her text said, "will this help?" My heart dropped immediately! I felt like my world was crashing. There are about 100-200 pages of my medical records in the manila envelope (white papers). She literally rummaged through several pages of my medical records, on the hunt to find anything to backstab me--this is an invasion of my privacy. For context, my mother worked as a medical assistant (MA) for 15+ years and knows the consequences of HIPAA violations. My mother has always been emotionally negligent and cold. Earlier this week, she shared on her Facebook page without my consent that I'll be having surgery with my meal train link (the meal train contains all of my personal info--address, location of surgery, type of surgery, etc.). I found out because a family member texted me that she posted it. I called my mom immediately and demanded that she delete the post; she did. Then two days later, she does this crap. I called her about the shot records, and tried to make light of the STI records (for now). I then texted her and told her to delete the pictures she took off her phone, to please mail my medical records certified ASAP, and I'll pay the cost of shipping.
For now, I need to remain calm until my records are in my hands as I feel nervous about her "accidentally" posting my old STI results on her FB page/text like she did earlier this week. I told my friend, that this HIIPAA violation offense is so severe (and hurtful) to me that I would take her to court if she leaked my private information. This is something I definitely don't want to do, but she needs to be held accountable for the breach of confidentiality. I don't know who she'll tell. There was no reason for her to fish through several pages after I specifically told her to look for a blue paper because I knew these sensitive records were in the manila envelope. I truly didn't think my own mother would betray my trust & boundaries like this. Is this a HIPAA violation? What steps should I take next? Thanks for reading and any advice.
TLDR: Very old medical records were at my mom's house. I asked her to get a blue piece of paper out of the envelope, instead she fishes through hundreds of papers to find my STD records, takes a picture of it, and texted the pictures to me as a way to say, "I know now." Is this a HIPAA violation?