# A rant about HIPAA and a stupid medical secretary **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 28, 2003, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947 "2003-06-28T07:37:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947/21 "2003-06-29T05:23:56Z")
During our HIPAA meeting i drew a comic where the HIPAA Hippos attack a Doctor Bear wrongly accused of releasing patient information, and the Doctor Bear beats them up Matrix style! ---
**Author:** ![thatDDperson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@thatDDperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thatDDperson)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947/22 "2003-06-29T19:26:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\*Reasons for HIPAA, as told by my wife: > > 1. “One place I worked the receptionist would say, very loudly and in the waiting room, things like, ‘You’re getting a proctoscope? Our Dr So-and-so just got one. Maybe she can tell you all about it,’ and, ‘Why, hello Mr Smith! Here to get a refill on your Viagra?’” > > 2. "A woman called in wanting to talk about blood types. I eventually got out of her that her son’s girlfriend had just given birth and the woman wanted to know the baby’s blood type, apparantly to prove that it wasn’t really his baby. > > "‘I can’t tell that to anybody but the baby’s mother.’ > > "‘What if I call back and claim I am her?’ > > “‘That would be fraud and I could have you arrested. I have Caller ID.’ She didn’t call back.” > > We here are reasonable, law-abiding people, most of us, and we forget how many stupid, irresponsible, and just plain nasty people are out there. It will take a while for the kinks to get worked out but I believe its benefits will outweigh its liabilities. \*\* Actual reason for HIPAA, as given to my Semi-Insig. Other at all three of the day-long HIPAA seminars he was required to attend: The spouse of Senator Ted Kennedy got irate when a nurse said her age out loud in the waiting room, within earshot of 2 other patients. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947/23 "2003-06-29T19:27:33Z")
**Ivylass** , it’s the new health information privacy act that’s gone into efffect here in the States. It codifies what steps medical practicioners have to follow to protect personally identifiable medical information from getting released to anyone but the patient and other authorized people. **Snoop** , I want to make sure I’ve got this straight. You go in and the doctor sends you for labs. Before you ever leave his presence, he tells you that they’ll only contact you if there’s a problem, and no news is good news. You don’t say, “But I’d like to know my results regardless. A call from your nurse or a letter in the mail would be fine.” You just go on to the lab without saying a thing. Then, after the fact, you decide that you have a right to know what your results were. You call, and the secretary tells you right off the bat that you’re going to have to make an appointment, which implies that that’s standard procedure for either that group or that particular doctor. Then you suggest talking to a nurse, and without checking with the doctor or nurse involved, the secretary agrees. So you go in, they tell you again that you’ll have to make an appointment, and you protest. You have to sit and wait while people with appointments get taken care of, and you get cranky. The secretary speaks to the nurse, and then makes promises about what the doctor will do. The secretary was wrong, and so now you’re mad because now you have to wait for the appointment you were told three times you’d have to make. Oh, and you’re also mad because those money-grubbing doctors are using this as an excuse to get people in for more billable appointments. Frankly, my sympathy level is pretty damn low. By not saying anything about getting your results at the initial appointment, you entered into an agreement that you would only learn your results if they were abnormal. You then proceded to renege on that agreement. You whined about having to make an appointment (a fact that I’m sure was passed on when discussing this issue with the nurse and/or doctor). You got pissy when you had to wait 35 minutes during normal business hours on a day that you didn’t have an appointment. All this doesn’t exactly make anyone want to bend over backward for you, ya know? This doc is probably one of those who prefers to go over results with patients himself. A lot of patients claim to be fine with going over that stuff with the nurse, but they then pester the nurse so much, and ask if they could just speak to the doctor for a minute or two so often, thats it’s often more efficient to just go on and do it yourself. And just between you and me, those people are viewed as giant pains in the arse by everyone who has to deal with them, from the secretaries on up. You appear to have joined the ranks of those pains in the arse. (And if your doctor has a 2-3 week waiting period for appointments, this time of year, they don’t want or need to waste their appointment slots going over normal lab results. They need all the appointment slots they can get to take care of people who actually need the doctors and nurses time and attention. Well, they could probably actually work you in sooner, but as you said yourself, you’re not sick and this isn’t exactly an urgent matter. ---
**Author:** ![magog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/fbc32d/32.png) [@magog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magog)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947/24 "2003-06-29T19:49:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > We here are reasonable, law-abiding people, most of us, and we forget how many stupid, irresponsible, and just plain nasty people are out there. It will take a while for the kinks to get worked out but I believe its benefits will outweigh its liabilities. I think you are spot on here - in my office, there’s a bit of confusion on what is HIPAA compliant and what is simple paranoia. Dealing with the OP, they just may want to err on the side of caution. From the computer side, HIPAA is a godsend in terms of unifying codes and medical records. It also gives some backbone to the IT director when he relays our complaints about not having sufficient encryption and security. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947/25 "2003-06-29T19:57:07Z")
**Ivylass** , HIPAA = Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. ---
**Author:** ![labboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@labboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labboy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947/26 "2003-06-29T21:52:45Z")
HIPPA does NOT prevent you from seeing your lab results and is not a scam so you doctor can charge your for a extra visit. The people in your doctors office are just stupid, like everone in every office. Lab results are not normally given out over the phone because they need to know that you are you, and someone in the medical field usually needs to be there to answer your questions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rant-about-hipaa-and-a-stupid-medical-secretary/184947.md?page=1)