The HIPAA Beast
ritaanz
2,665 Posts
This is a true story. We recently changed medical carriers (3/1/03). I had to complete an application to access the health carrier's web site. The application was 4 pages long and required the signature of the Primary Controlling Authority, Alternate Controlling Authority and a signature of a witness. It took 3 weeks for approval.
Then I received 2 letters from the carrier 2 days apart. One letter has the User Identifier and the other letter had the Temporary Password. The temp password had numbers, small letters, capitol letters and more numbers. When I tried to access our account, I kept getting the message "Incorrect Password". Finally the system just locked me out for too many attempts to gain access.
One of the letters told me to call my representative. Upon calling him, I was given a telephone number to the corporate office. The corporate office then gave me a telephone number to the IT department in Kentucky. After the IT person made sure I was who I said I was, they refreshed the web site and told me to sign in again this time to use only the first 8 numbers of my temporary password. When I asked why the letter I received had more letters and numbers, the reply was that the carrier wanted to make sure the correct individual got their letter and this was the only way to make sure. They intentionally gave me an incorrect password!
Okay, now I'm signed in, right? Wrong! Now I had to register the group with the carrier. This took seven screens and some time to receive approval to use the web site. I don't know if I have been approved. I'm afraid to look.
Then I received 2 letters from the carrier 2 days apart. One letter has the User Identifier and the other letter had the Temporary Password. The temp password had numbers, small letters, capitol letters and more numbers. When I tried to access our account, I kept getting the message "Incorrect Password". Finally the system just locked me out for too many attempts to gain access.
One of the letters told me to call my representative. Upon calling him, I was given a telephone number to the corporate office. The corporate office then gave me a telephone number to the IT department in Kentucky. After the IT person made sure I was who I said I was, they refreshed the web site and told me to sign in again this time to use only the first 8 numbers of my temporary password. When I asked why the letter I received had more letters and numbers, the reply was that the carrier wanted to make sure the correct individual got their letter and this was the only way to make sure. They intentionally gave me an incorrect password!
Okay, now I'm signed in, right? Wrong! Now I had to register the group with the carrier. This took seven screens and some time to receive approval to use the web site. I don't know if I have been approved. I'm afraid to look.
Comments
EDIT: Also sounds like a girl I dated in college. She gave me the wrong dorm name on purpose and later said, "I just did that to see how serious you were about finding me."
Have a great weekend. I am glad it is Friday.
Try working in a cardiology practice where the majority of our patients are elderly and have been with us long term. Good case scenario: Husband and wife have been married 50 plus years and have always been able to call the doc about their health related questions about each other. When Mrs. X calls to inquire about a prescription that Mr. X has been prescribed and what it is for, she is informed that that they can't give her that information because of privacy issues. You haven't seen anything until you observe an irate octagenarian coming at you with a cane!
My mother, who is the caretaker for my father, called his physician's office to inquire about a certain blood test that he has to take periodically to measure coumadin in his blood (anti clotting agent) and she was told that because my father had not signed release forms, she could not get information. My mother had to get off work, go get my father, bundle him up in the car, and take him down to the doctor's office to sign release papers to get information she has been getting for years.
So....make sure that you have signed proper forms at your physician's office so that someone in your family can get information on you in case of an emergency.
I can't see any possible explanation for such tactics except it gives some paper pushers in Washington something to do to justify their existence. It certainly has made many patients angry and caused ill feelings between physicians' offices and patients.
A "beast" indeed !
Chari
This law is enacted for our safety and people need to understand that, although inconvenient, they can rest assured that "Joe Schmo" who calls up a doctor saying I'm so and so's care taker, have been for years, here's all the info you need...etc., doesn't get your private health information without your say so...Even if you've been doing it for years. What if you don't want "Aunt Mary Sue" to know about treatments you're having because she's quite the busy body you know...
Isn't it nice to know that not just anybody has access to your personal medical issues / records. Just think of what happend to Michael Jordan, someone told the world about his medical history, would you want that to happen to you?
Food for thought.
Or if I need to help my mother out with her medication I should be able to so without having her have to sign her life away.
People that want to keep their private info private should be allowed to do so, but they should be the ones with the burden of paperwork and other things that will grant them that privacy. If Michael Jordan wants his info kept private, let him deal with it. Don't force me to at the same time.
If someone pretends to be a relative to get info on me, then that is fraud and there are already laws on the books to deal with that. And quite frankly I'm really not as interesting to the world as Michael Jordan so I don't think anyone really cares what I'm seeing a doctor for. Just my thoughts.
Before HIPPA, in our practice, we had measures in place to protect patient privacy. In fact, one of our employees wanted to get information on her father's death, but the mother did not want any information given to this daughter for some reason. Despite what we thought, she was not entitled to this via the next of kin. But....one of our employees in medical records took issue with this and copied the medical records and gave them to the employee. Needless to say, both were summarily fired for doing this.
Now, with HIPAA firmly in place, these individuals would have been subject to about a $50,000 fine, not to mention what the practice would have to cough up.
Unfortunately, most of the people who will be hurt, inconvenienced by this law will be the caregivers of sick individuals, not the "busy bodies" out there.
Try going into the hospital nowdays and you will find in addition to the other paperwork you have to be bothered with, you are presented with a 10 page privacy packet (no lie!) which covers down to the point where even your minister can't visit you unless he has permission. If the minister calls the hospital, they cannot even be told if you are a patient unless you want him to know. (although some people might find that a blessing)!
The instructor claimed this is just the law forcing everyone to comply nationally with something they were doing already with privacy. hmmm
In any case, most of us will find having to sign something a pain. But to some it will be a good thing. If you found out you had something you wished to keep private it would be nice to know that you really can keep it that way.
I have another idea, though I don't know if it will work. My daughter gives me a signed authorization every year. This paper says I can authorize treatment for my grandchildren which I carry with me always (one of my grandsons almost bit his tongue off in a fall in another town and had to wait hours for his mom to get there so he could receive treatment). I think I will have my husband sign something that says I can recieve and medical information on him. It won't help to follow up on tests via a phone call, but might save me some headaches if he is taken to emergency in a coma.
Sorry so long-winded today. Have a good weekend.
>platforms behind counters, almost inaccessible to the public,
>answering people's questions about their medications? Don't they need
>a private counseling area or something less public when they discuss
>these issues? Typically there are 10 or so people sitting or standing
>around in a tiny area and most have a question or two for the
>pharmacist. The pharmacist today has gotten so high and mighty that
>you have to ask the question of a clerk who then turns and shouts your
>question to the pharmacist and then the answer follows the same route
>in reverse.
Hey Don!
Pharmacists are not allowed to do this any longer. If they shout out any medical information or converse with a patient out in the open concerning their medical conditions, they have violated this person's privacy according to the HIPAA Bible.
Maybe they can hang one of those invisible lines from the ceiling (like they do for Vegas entertainers) and hoist the patient to pharmacist level so they may converse at the higher pharmacist level.
>time ago that the only way to keep the Baptists away (I'm one) is when
>you move to another town or go into the hospital, tell the 'welcome
>wagon people' and the registration desk you're Jewish. I mean this in
>good humor; the guys on the black bicycles and the Baptist
>door-knockers and the dinner time telemarketers all can be maddening.
>Regardless of how much value they attach to their own purpose, none of
>them were invited to dinner.
Don...that's interesting about the Baptist minister. My father recently had ear surgery and you would have thought he was at death's door. The minister came up to the hospital with his "enterouge" which consisted of about 6 retired men who go around in a pack visiting people in the hospital and taking up all the spaces in the waiting room. I told my mother if I ever had surgery, you could bet your bottom dollar, no one would know until I was back safely at home behind locked doors.
The only bigger event for Baptists is a good,ole fashioned funeral.
Problem was, little Billy didn't know he had cancer, and certainly didn't know he only had another month to live. He just knew he was sick and in the hospital.
Jackson was extremely upset and very nearly retired. He said later that it took him years before he could get over his fear of commenting on anything that wasn't actually occuring that moment on the field of play.
Anyway, think how different the scene would be in which Babe Ruth promises to hit a homer for the sick child, surrounded by clicking cameras and reporters at the side of the child's hospital bed. Good thing for Babe he predated HIPAA.