Hippa

hrwoman · September 2004

What do you do when an employee is really sick and is in the hospital. At my company, normally an announcement is sent out i.e. so and so had a heart attack and is in the hospital. please keep the family in your thoughts. Is this a violation of Hippa? Most of the time before the announcement is sick half the company already knows. The announcement is only sent when it is something sudden like a heart attack, stroke, etc. Thanks in advance!

SMace · September 2004

Yes, it could be a violation of HIPAA. Someone has to complain first.

hrwoman · September 2004

Thanks. I thought it might be. Thanks.

safety · September 2004

While I am no HIPAA expert, I would not continue this practice unless the employee authorizes you, in writing, to release his or her PHI to those whom are not on a need to know basis. I believe without their consent you are in violation of HIPAA. Isn't this where the accountability portion of the act comes into play?

Don D · September 2004

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-03-04 AT 02:03AM (CST)[/font][br][br]It is not a HIPAA violation unless you are releasing information that came through or via your medical plan; and, I seriously doubt the medical plan was your first notice that the ee was in the hospital as a result of a heart attack.

We are learning as time goes on that HIPAA is not quite the booger-bear it was anticipated to be. Although your practice of sending out announcements advising of the precise diagnosis is rather tacky, I do not think it would violate HIPAA. I would suggest toning it down to simply advise that "John is hospitalized at Mercy Hospital in room number 812 and we anticipate he will be out for a few weeks. His phone number is 662 plus his room number."

Most knee-jerk reactions that warm and fuzzy stuff violates HIPAA might be taken with a grain of salt. Now if you received information that originated with or passed through your plan's third party administrator and, as a result, your memo included that diagnosis and treatment plan or gave private medical information in your memo, that would violate HIPAA. But, it does not violate HIPAA to state that John is hospitalized for a few weeks at Mercy. Nor does it violate any laws to ask for prayers or state that John's prayer group at first Baptist asks you to join with them, although it's not suggested.

PS: Always leave out test results and blood pressure readings and the exact organ that is being removed x:-).

TedK · September 2004

We send flowers in the case of hospital stays, but I've used hipaa to put it on the manager or EE themselves to make sure that they have to get me the information - or, better yet - send out their own notice (if I got it myself then that would mean I read it off the medical reports).

Putting it on them also saves alot of trouble trying to find out if anyone is in the hospital or needs fmla notices. And it cut out sending sympathy notes for every silly little thing - it was really getting ridiculous with the old HR person. Some people complained at first but I just told them that the HR office could no longer supply that information; they got over it.

Hippa

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