Good point. But let’s pretend he confused her with someone else. Is it any better that he discussed any of his customer’s personal matters with another customer?
I work for a major university medical center, and even though I don’t work in a clinical area, HIPAA regulations run through every aspect of our work.
It doesn’t matter that the disclosure was based on conversation with the OP, misinterpretation of the drugs she is taking, or if the pharmacist confused her or her mom with someone else.
It doesn’t matter who the pharmacist made the disclosure to.
It doesn’t matter whether her mom cared or not, or really whether or not disclosure had any negative effect on her life.
What the pharmacist did was (a) unprofessional and (b) completely and utterly against US law. Period. End of story.
If it were me, I would absolutely have a conversation with the pharmacist. I would probably be reluctant to report him, but if his response to my talking to him was anything but abject horror and apology that he’d done such a grossly inappropriate thing, I’d consider it. If he blabbed about the OP, he’s blabbed about other people and will continue to do so.
See http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html
If it gets taken to that high of a level, then yes I agree he might have some trouble finding work. If he only gets in trouble on a small local level I still maintain he’d have another job in two weeks.
No and that’s not what I said. I asked what exactly was disclosed by the pharmacist. By the OP’s account, nothing factual was said about her which would mean her protected health information is still confidential. I’m not saying the pharmacist was right, I even said I understood the OP being angry. My main issue was with the talk of bringing it to court, which I still feel is way over the top. Also, we can play out hypothetical scenarios all day but the question posed by the pharmacist seems fairly innocuous(yet inappropriate and he should have displayed better judgement), unlike asking about her mental health which I think would cross more of a line.
I’m not planning on bringing it to court as long as I get an apology and the assurance that this won’t happen to anyone else. I’m going to go directly to the source and just let him know that I’m switching pharmacies and why. He is a decent guy and has helped me quite a bit in the past few months, which is why I feel so bad about it, but, damnit! He had no right to do that. And it’s true, he may be likely to slip up again.
The AMA has a pageto lodge HIPAA compaints, though it seems to be aimed at doctors who want to complain about insurers.
I get the feeling on it, but legally, it doesn’t matter what it was about. I can’t tell anyone what Oprah Winfrey or you were seen for in our office for any reason, whether it’s itchy eyes that turn out to be allergies or a herpes infection in the eye. Both are violations of the law.
And as you can see, it seemed like an innocent question but had very bad potential for Hazel. Dropping a surprise “hey, she still trying to get pregnant?” on the wrong person (separated husband, bitchy mother-in-law, whatever) could pose a lot of problems for her.
In our work training, it’s emphasized that unless we have approval, we can’t leave test results on a voice mail, and we can’t even say what we’re calling about. One teaching example given was the husband of the patient picking up the phone, and the nurse disclosing the patient’s pregnancy results to him. Husband gets a “WTF?!” expression and goes ballistic, not having been told by his wife there was a chance she was pregnant.
I’m still trying to figure out how this could have affected other potential relationships. Hazle, mind clueing us in?
I think I can understand this. Let’s play “for example”
For example, let’s assume the Pharmacist was really confused, and misremembered having a conversation with you (or your mom) at a party, when it was someone else, and was then trying to initiate small talk based on it. People’s brain wires get crossed sometimes. If it is something said to them in a non-confidential conversation, I don’t think it’s a violaton at all.
Was it an extremely stupid thing of him to say? Sure. But I doubt it was a HIPAA violation if this is what transpired. And given your prescription history, I don’t thin anyone cold have looked at it and made the conclusion he did without being a surprisingly incompetent pharmacist. So I tend to think he was just confused. And a little stupid, but not in violation of HIPAA.
I would love to see you argue this in court.
My husband and I have not been living together since the end of January, but we are still married. Mom is trying to remain optimistic about a reconciliation. Although she would probably believe the best about me, I’m sure it threw her for a loop and her brain went, “My married, yet separated, daughter is trying to get pregnant?” She would have no reason to doubt the pharmacist, other than to wonder why he brought it up. She knows I’ve been spending a good deal of time with a male friend. This was just not something she needed to hear and try to piece together. She just told me this last night and had heard the remark nearly 2 months ago. It’s been stewing in her mind for that long. Suppose she thought. hmm, maybe if her hubby gets wind of this, he might step in an try to stop it…yadda, yadda, yadda…I know, lots of what-iffing going on here, but, you asked. Anyway, least of all, it forced me to have an convo with my Mom that I wasn’t prepared to have re: the status of my marriage. That’s all… And I refer back to the comment I made upthread about if the pharmacist had made this remark to my husband. Yikes!
Thanks for the clarification Hazle.
To be fair though, you did say “relationships”, and if your mom didn’t mention it to anyone else, it was just be one. That’s why I was confused.
Its your life, you’re an adult (I assume), and I don’t see how it would be any business of your husband’s as to who, if anyone, you’re seeing and fucking.
Agreed. I mean, he sure as hell intended to disclose protected health information, and if it wasn’t for a brain fart it would have been factually correct information.
Well, OK, I’ll send you an invitation once I get approved to appear in a court of law. I’m going to require payment in advance for my appearance, though, mmmkay?
It’s not protected if it wasn’t available by looking at the health records, and if he garnered the info in a non-professional capacity.
Listen, I go to a CVS pharmacy. If I were a bit younger, I might even hang out with some of the techs, they are cool, nice people. I could easily imagine talking about stuff with one of them at a party or something. I’m not saying it doesn’t stretch the imagination a bit, but rulign something out simply because the odds are 1 in 1000 against it is silly…SOMEONE has to be that 1 person in 1000. I am not sure if HIPAA violations lean more toward “preponderance of evidence” or “beyond a reasonable doubt” but if it’s the latter, your’r going to need more evidence that it was not a brain fart.
If you’re going to be passing the bar, could you order me a scotch?
If they’re still married (which they are), how is it not any of his business? He may not be able to do anything about it, but he has a right to know if his wife if sleeping with someone else.
But that’s not what happened, so it’s moot.
Listen, I’m not saying “go Hazel, get him arrested!” That’s especially since it wasn’t correct, but he really did toss out a serious monkey wrench of a statement there. I don’t blame her at all if she pulls her prescriptions from that site and/or has a talk with him. Besides, since it’s a significant time later, doing more may be tough - that pharmacist may not even remember his oversharing moment.
As a healthcare worker, I’m going to try to not share any information about patients that may show the appearance of being improper under the law, regardless of how I got it, because I don’t want to cause any trouble or make myself look bad. However it happened that this pharmacist got that impression (even though he doesn’t know Hazel on a social basis, or her mom), you can see how this looks Really Bad ™.
Besides, pregnancy gossip has its own issues - even if it was real and there wasn’t a separation going on, some people don’t want to tell the whole world that they’re trying to get pregnant/are pregnant/whatever right away. If it’s not abundantly clear, I ask friends who talk to me about this if they’re being open about the news yet or no.
Thanks for all of the great replies! I’m definitely not looking to throw the guy under the bus, I just want to make sure he knows why I won’t be coming back and to make him aware of his indiscretion. I am positive that it was just thoughtlessness on his part, but he needs to know that it wasn’t acceptable. He is quite a decent fellow…
Then I’d say give him another chance. Go down to the pharmacy one day soon and ask if you could speak to him privately. Tell him, out of the hearing of customers and superiors, that while you’re sure it was an honest, if thoughtless, mistake, you need to have assurances that he will treat your medical and pharmacy information with the uttermost sensitivity and that this sort of slip-up won’t happen again.
I’d imagine your personal information will be the pharmacy’s best-kept secret after that.