hippa violation

[brap]

HIPAA violation?

What is the name of your state? Virginia

My girlfriend attended a 90 county drug rehab facility, my girlfriend is 25. After she graduated she relapsed and her parents and I had to attend a meeting with her counselor to discuss what action they would take. During the meeting no mention of what happened during the relapse was brought up. My girlfriend does not want her parents to know details, her counselors know this.

The meeting didn't go so well and my girlfriend and I left early. After we left we later found out from her parents that the counselors disclosed what happened to my girlfriend despite the fact that the counselors know not to disclose full details of her problems to her parents. They did so to persuade her parents to agree with their decision.

The rehab facility claims that my girlfriend signed some document giving them permission to disclose this information to her parents. However my girlfriend swears she would never have signed such a document as she does not want her parents to know any details of her situation, no more than just that she is a recovering addict.

We asked the facility to provide us a copy of the document that she supposedly signed and are waiting to see if it arrives. However if we discover that no document was ever signed would the disclosure of specifics of my girlfriends addiction be considered a HIPAA violation by a county ran rehab facility?

Thank you

 

[VeronicaLodge]

ITS HIPAA not hippa

 

[lealea1005]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

My girlfriend attended a 90 county drug rehab facility, my girlfriend is 25. After she graduated she relapsed and her parents and I had to attend a meeting with her counselor to discuss what action they would take. During the meeting no mention of what happened during the relapse was brought up. My girlfriend does not want her parents to know details, her counselors know this.

The meeting didn't go so well and my girlfriend and I left early. After we left we later found out from her parents that the counselors disclosed what happened to my girlfriend despite the fact that the counselors know not to disclose full details of her problems to her parents. They did so to persuade her parents to agree with their decision.

The rehab facility claims that my girlfriend signed some document giving them permission to disclose this information to her parents. However my girlfriend swears she would never have signed such a document as she does not want her parents to know any details of her situation, no more than just that she is a recovering addict.

We asked the facility to provide us a copy of the document that she supposedly signed and are waiting to see if it arrives. However if we discover that no document was ever signed would the disclosure of specifics of my girlfriends addiction be considered a HIPPA violation by a county ran rehab facility?
Thank youWhat is the name of your state?

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act).

Since her parents (and you) were in the room with your girlfriend and the counselor, and there was discussion of your girlfriend's relapse, it may be considered implied consent. Therefore, it would not be a violation.

 

[brap]

Sorry for the misspelling. It's been corrected.

As for the implied consent, she had made clear she did not want her parents to know details, when she had this meeting and her parents were invited it was not of her choosing, they showed up because the facility asked them to come. She was under the impression that since she had not signed anything and that her counselors knew she did not want details revealed that they would not reveal any information other than the recovery plan they had for her.

I'm not sure if this fact makes any bit of difference.

I am willing to consider the fact however that she may have signed something not realizing exactly what it was (did not read the entire document or something to that effect), in which case that is her mistake. Until we see this document she signed though I am under the impression she did not.

Ryan

 

[lealea1005]

Sorry for the misspelling. It's been corrected.

As for the implied consent, she had made clear she did not want her parents to know details, when she had this meeting and her parents were invited it was not of her choosing, they showed up because the facility asked them to come. She was under the impression that since she had not signed anything and that her counselors knew she did not want details revealed that they would not reveal any information other than the recovery plan they had for her.
I'm not sure if this fact makes any bit of difference.

I am willing to consider the fact however that she may have signed something not realizing exactly what it was (did not read the entire document or something to that effect), in which case that is her mistake. Until we see this document she signed though I am under the impression she did not.



Ryan

Nope. Once her parents were in the room, unless she specifically asked to have them removed while certain information was discussed, there was no violation.

 

[xkacyx]

Get over it!!!

There is nothing more petty than to change a whole issue due to a spelling era. This BS is old. xkacyx

 

[las365]

There is nothing more petty than to change a whole issue due to a spelling era. This BS is old. xkacyx

Spelling ERROR, not era. And it is not petty to give someone the correct spelling of a law that they are inquiring about. It is helpful.

Once her parents were in the room, unless she specifically asked to have them removed while certain information was discussed, there was no violation.

But what he says happened was:

During the meeting no mention of what happened during the relapse was brought up. My girlfriend does not want her parents to know details, her counselors know this.

The meeting didn't go so well and my girlfriend and I left early. After we left we later found out from her parents that the counselors disclosed what happened to my girlfriend despite the fact that the counselors know not to disclose full details of her problems to her parents.

OP, your girlfriend should make a request in writing to the facility for a complete, unaltered copy of her records. If she signed a release, it should be included. If there isn't a signed release in the records, she may have a civil case aainst the facility, or she may not.

As a side note, secrecy and shame are huge components of the addiction cycle that keep people using. It may actually help your girlfriend in the long run that she doesn't have to hide whatever it was that happened from her parents. However, that does not make it okay (in my opinion from a treatment standpoint) that the rehab facility she should have been able to trust to help her violated her trust and her wishes, with or without a release.

 

[Pete Moss]

There is no appealable, final decision or relief at stake here, so the entire scenario is MOOT ... unless

Administrative law requires specific relief or remedies be spelled-out by plaintiffs, in order for the process to work. Government entities DO NOT brew up solutions to problems on their own. You have to ask for them along with the complaint of record (patients' hospital files).


The complaint is real enough - but what does G/F want, what relief does it seek?

It is possible and quite common for patients to recind disclosure forms they have previously signed. If it were to do this, it is highly questionable whether the parents would be allowed into any meetings at the facility at all.


Eric Clapton is the poster-boy for AA & N/A, and clean & sober years - how tenacious defense mechanisms must be in this day and age of temptations of Meth, Smack, Diazepam, Merck, Pfizer.

It is the same story here - "I will always be in recovery because .. being an alcoholic, we are not from this planet, it is in our blood," ["The Library Policeman"/Stephen King/Four Past Midnight].

-Pete Moss
​

[/FONT]