HIPAA Violation??

[justalayman]

diJ;3332889]I do not agree. She was no longer an employee of the doctor when that happened...and she was no longer an employee when she was given the documents. She was already fired. I think that the HIPAA violation occurred when she was given the documents.

doesn't matter. The info was legal for her to view as she was an employee and under that relationship the info was accessible to her and it carried forward. The restrictions of distributing protected information remain in place forever.

However, this is something that we could all debate for days...and said debate would be of little to no use to the poster.

actually it could be of use to the poster's girlfriend since reporting this information means she may be subject to criminal penalties for distributing protected information.

I say return the documents to the doctor's office with a note stating a belief that having the documents in her possession is a HIPAA violation, and move on

it isn't a violation for her to have them but it is a violation for her to distribute the information to anybody that is not also privy to that same information under the same reasoning.

 

[ecmst12]

JAL is correct. It is acceptable for her to have access to the information but she is still bound by HIPAA to not disclose that information for improper reasons. She violated HIPAA and needs to destroy the information before someone else who shouldn't sees it.

 

[justalayman]

JAL is correct.

credit belongs to tigerD though.