Private Health Information

[George K]

D3 sent me a message today.

She has a chronic medical condition (not important, for the sake of discussion what it is) that is bothersome, but not debilitating.

Her home health agency (she’s in charge of staffing) just hired someone - I’m not sure if it was a caregiver or someone for the office. At any rate the woman who owns the company told this new hire about D3’s condition.

I know this isn’t HIPAA, but it sure sounds sketchy, if not downright illegal.

D3 has no problem discussing her issue with anyone, but it should be up to her, not her employer who learns about it, AMIRITE?

Thoughts?

[Jolly]

Ethical? No.

Stoppable? No. People are going to talk. If you (generic you) put it out there for public consumption, it's office fodder.

[George K]

@jolly said in Private Health Information:

Ethical? No.

Stoppable? No. People are going to talk. If you (generic you) put it out there for public consumption, it's office fodder.

This is different, however. She didn’t tell the new hire, her boss did.

“You know, one of our employees, you haven’t met her yet, has this condition….”

[Mik]

That depends on how D3's boss obtained the information. If D3 told her about it, it's out there voluntarily. if she received it as part of her job for some reason it's PHI.

In any event she's badly wrong to have disclosed it.

[Loki]

I know it happens all the time in whispers but when it gets out it is really shunned and may be illegal.

[brenda]

Wow. Yes, that's more than sketchy, it's completely unprofessional, and possibly illegal. It would destroy my trust in the person, and make it difficult to have any respect for them. Working for them would be difficult until they proved themselves to be trustworthy over a long period of time.

Is your daughter concerned?

[George K]

@brenda said in Private Health Information:

Wow. Yes, that's more than sketchy, it's completely unprofessional, and possibly illegal. It would destroy my trust in the person, and make it difficult to have any respect for them. Working for them would be difficult until they proved themselves to be trustworthy over a long period of time.

Is your daughter concerned?

The person who owns the business is the one who did this, and has little day-to-day managing of it - her son does that and he's an a-hole and stupid. The mom has made a fortune off of this business, and is getting on. But, she's kind of stupid as well.

"A HIPAA violation in the workplace refers to a situation where an employee’s health information has fallen into the wrong hands, whether willfully or inadvertently, without his consent. Basically, for you to stay free of workplace HIPAA violations, you need to guard PHI properly."

D3 is not so much concerned as pissed. As she said, she has no problem talking about it. But SHE should be the one talking about it.

[Jolly]

I can understand her being pissed.

But what is she going to do about it? If nothing, chalk it up to moronic behavior and move on. Otherwise, get a plan of action and follow through on it.

Crap like this will gnaw on you, and make your life miserable if you let it.

[George K]

@jolly said in Private Health Information:

But what is she going to do about it? If nothing, chalk it up to moronic behavior and move on. Otherwise, get a plan of action and follow through on it.

Probably nothing. She's not the kind of person to let this eat away at her, though she might mention it to the old lady. Like I said, it's a small shop, there is no HR department, etc.

[Mik]

I’m very private about health matters. If I was really sick you probably wouldn’t know until I posted “You probably won’t see me next week…”.

This kind of stuff is why. No one else can use is in any positive way.

[Axtremus]

What contract or agreement did D3 signed (or clicked "I Agree") when engaging said staffing company's service? Maybe some fine prints are buried there.

[George K]

@axtremus said in Private Health Information:

What contract or agreement did D3 signed (or clicked "I Agree") when engaging said staffing company's service? Maybe some fine prints are buried there.

I doubt she has any kind of contract. I'll ask.