Patient comes up to the drive thru window… as a passenger in the car… The pt asks the tech at the drive thru window a question about her meds… Which the tech answered… The pt then proceeded to file a complaint of a HIPAA violation.. Tech was written up !
I am not a expert on HIPAA, but logic would suggest – I know logic can’t always be applied to the law – that because of the situation of the patient being a passenger in a car with another person between the pt and the tech when the question was asked… That the pt gave “consent” for this single interaction, to divulge the information in the presence of the other person in the car..
It was reported that the pt worked for an insurance company … so should have been fairly aware of HIPAA regulations… Was the tech set up and whoever up the ladder wrote the tech up… not smart enough to see the potential that this was a scam? Or is the company so focused on making the customer happy that they will even condone illegal activities from pts?
Filed under: General Problems
The Technician, who was written up, should have refused to answer any and all questions. Many times I am requested to identity a drug. I hand the printed out answer to the Pharmacist and go back to work. Technicians are safer never answering anything that even sniffs of consultation.
This is clearly a setup by the passenger. And, by the passenger(patient) asking for the information there is an implied consent for the information to be heard by others in the car. The pharmacist should not have been written up and the passenger should not have a valid HIPPA complaint. Of course corporate wants to appease the customer and does not want a HIPPA complaint filed against the company, and the pharmacist is thrown under the bus. Again, a clear case of policy wins over common sense.