I am interested about an incident at a blood lab that happened a few weeks ago. I am not upset about it, just wondering if it was an “oops” on the tech’s part.
I went in to have a routine blood draw done for my pregnancy. The lab tech took me to a room where there was another tech doing a draw on a woman already. It was a small room so we could all see and hear each other clearly and we exchanged small talk.
I asked the lab tech to use a small needle, as I have somewhat difficult veins and we got to talking about blood draw disasters in my past. She was able to stick me without difficulty and I said hey, that was quick. She replied that yes, sometimes pregnancy makes it easier. The other woman in the room overheard that comment and looked at me as if she was going to comment, then stopped. I saw the other lab tech glance over at the woman doing my draw, but she didn’t say anything.
I was not upset that she basically announced why I was there, but I did wonder if she should have done that. I didn’t talk about being pregnant at all, she only knew from my paperwork my Dr. sent along with me. If it was an unwanted pregnancy or something or if I knew the other woman somehow it might have been awkward.
Anyway, was this a HIPAA violation, to talk about my pregnancy at a blood lab? Like I said, I was not upset about it, I am just curious.
Many health care providers and professionals have long made it a practice to ensure
reasonable safeguards for individuals’ health information – for instance:
-By speaking quietly when discussing a patient’s condition with family members in
a waiting room or other public area;
But with a ‘common room’ enviroment, I’m not sure that it’s the right answer.
But from here (which is from the same site as the other part) I found this:
So that sorta implies that she was okay,
Also I found this
In the eyes of the law, “your veins are easy to find becuase you are pregnant” could probably be seen as a “result” and therefore covered here.
Of course, from the same answer
Of course then there’s this ‘minimum necessary’ rule which basically says that if the phlebotomist didn’t ‘need’ to know that your pregnant to do the blood draw (and I have no idea, there’s a good chance they do NEED to know), then it shouldn’t have even been on the chart to begin with.
Really and truly, I would think if you complained, the nurse would be repremanded for mentioning it out loud with other patients in the area, but if the nurse had a good lawyer (if, say, she lost her job over it) they could probably prove that it was covered. In the mean time, here’s a good site about HIPAA law http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/
If you are pregnant, in a few months, everybody who sees you will know it, regardless of what HIPPA privacy rules say. So I wouldn’t get bothered about it.
But it probably was at least a violation of clinic policies, if not actual HIPPA rules.
HIPAA Privacy rules generally relate to the privacy of protected health information. Random discussions of a specific person’s condition would be unlikely to constitute a violation of HIPAA unless the discussion was accompanied by personally identifiable information.
For example, if your lab technician had said “It’s ok Ms. Smith, pregnancy usually makes it easier to find veins,” it would be more likely to be a HIPAA violation than if the technician had not used your name (or other personal information).
RANT AGAINST HIPAA TO FOLLOW:
Even if your situation was a technical violation of HIPAA, I would not count on any enforcement action being taken. HHS recently released numbers showing that there have been an exceeding small number of enforcement actions being taken since the HIPAA privacy rules went into effect. Considering how comprehensive the statute and regulations are, it is amazing how little anyone with authority actually cares about its enforcement. In addition, because there is no private right of action under HIPAA, the courts will not be able to supplement the government’s HIPAA enforcement regime. Why have such a law if it will not be enforced?
Yes, this was a violation. It’s also a great example of why HIPAA is useless.
All of HIPAA could have been written into a single, simple standard: “It is the obligation of healthcare providers to protect privacy while still maintaining safe care.”
Trying to cover every permutation and implementation is simply a mechanism for consultants and beaurocrats to create jobs and make money off of healthcare. It also provides ample fodder for petty tyrants and pickers of nits to rise to a level of importance beyond their personal abilities by proclaiming “HIPAA Violation!” at every turn, even where common sensibility and ordinary social judgment would suffice.
A couple of days ago, the New York Times ran an article about the misuses of HIPAA. The article summarized the law as saying that “health care providers may share information with others unless the patient objects, but does not require them to do so.” The first paragraph describes someone who was with his father-in-law while the older man was being treated for a stroke and was threatened by a nurse “with arrest for scanning his relative’s medical chart to prove to her that she was about to administer a dangerous second round of sedatives.”
I wasn’t bothered by it. But I could easily see an instance where someone else might be. If it was an unwanted pregnancy and they planned to terminate, they might not ever want people to know they were pregnant. Or, they might not be ready to tell yet for whatever reason.
But I can see that as a risk you run when in a shared room with other people.
Thanks for the good information, all.