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hipaa violation?

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stroke/cp

Junior Member
Hi. I have a young child with cp/stroke.

My child has had numerous therapists that are often discussing other cases in front of me at our home.
They have also discussed my child health issues with other therapist that are not part of my childs health team.

Is this a hipaa violation?
 


lya

Senior Member
Discussing other's conditions in front of you IF the information discussed allows you to identify (know) the person whose condition is being discussed, it is a HIPAA violation.

Discussing your child's condition with other therapist is not necessarily a HIPAA violation even if the other therapists are not a part of your child's team because the other therapists are part of the therapy team. Healthcare professions gain valuable information, suggestions, and support from their peers. Such discussions are usually beneficial to the patients, regardless of whether or not the patient ever knows that others helped in developing and implementing a course of treatment or a plan of care.

If the discussion about your child's condition is simply chit-chat or gossip, it is a HIPAA violation--IF personal identiier information is included in the gossip.

If you have concerns, call your child's healthcare provider's privacy officer and discuss your concerns.
 
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It is not a hippa violation to say " hey bess, that cp child on Tuesdays now has an ill fitting brace, yah yah yah". It would be a violation to say " hey bess, michael smith, that 6 year old cp pt that lives in glendale has yah yah yah". Can you identify the pt by name, age and/or location? If not, no violation.
 

lya

Senior Member
longsally-I'm amending my response about gossip to state that the gossip must include personal identifers--thanks for being heads-up.
 

stroke/cp

Junior Member
Thank you for you responses.

hey bess, that cp child on Tuesdays now has an ill fitting brace, yah yah yah
Would it be a violation if speaking with a therapist that is not part of the childs health team says that child cp child that lives on main street just had a seizure ... or is on this med or that ...
My concern abut this is my neighbor works at a facility that is where my childs therapist visit other children. I am concerned about my neighbor learning private med information about my child, she has somewhat hinted that she hears things. It is a very uncomfortable feeling.

Discussing other's conditions in front of you IF the information discussed allows you to identify (know) the person whose condition is being discussed, it is a HIPAA violation.
I can ID the person being discussed by knowing the parent ... or knowing where the child lives but not by the childs name and also yes, by age.
The information I am referring to is knowing a childs dx, medication hx, how a childs appt with certain physcians went .. what the physician said or did and even some details legal cases and so on.

In general, there is such a blatent disregard of the privacy of children and their families in our area. it is not one but several therapists.

We have have gone private with most of our therapy, but still had one of the original therapists but she recently said she could not continue services because of lack of progress ... which is another issue I would like to ask about later ( false documentation).

Anyway ... now I am concerned with privacy issues.
 

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