Hippa violation by Drs. office by allowing a non employee full access to all pt records?

Ok this could get complicated fast. I had a good friend that "worked" w/o being paid at a Drs. office. The Dr and she were friends and he had offered her 11.00 per hour and told her anytime she was ready to get paid to submit a bill.( at the time he was financially umable to pay her) Finally when she had worked almost 6 months she knew he was now financially stable enough to pay her so she sumbitted a bill for her hours x the rate of pay. He now claims she was not his employee and was only "helping out" If that is the case, and she had full access to all pt records, called in drug refills, made notes in charts and is still in position of his pts who are past due on bills (she was to collect them) is this not a Hippa violation? and if so on who's part? her's? his? Thanks for any help.

simoneaugie

Check HIPPA laws. She was authorized to work there, was witnessed working there and did for six months. He thinks he can get away with not paying her. He's a jerk. I suppose he wants her to finish up the collections too?

J_9

Did she discuss medical conditions or treatments of patients with people outside of the particular medical practice? If not, no, this is not a HIPAA violation.

HIPAA is about the right to privacy of ones medical conditions and/or treatment. Being a paid or unpaid employee has nothing to do with HIPAA.

Is the doctor a jerk? Heck yeah, but neither one of them violated the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws.

LearningAsIGo

J_9 is completely correct.

(sorry, J, I have to spread rep before I can rate)

simoneaugie

I worked in the medical field. I never did read the small print. Thanks J_9.
Simone

theresarobey

Well to tel you the truth if your friend was working for him and he then stated she was not then yes it can be considered a HIPPA violation/. She had accsess to documents only staff personel that work for the doctor are allowed to have. Unless patients oked her having this access since she did not have a JOB with the sob doctor. She infact could cause him problems if she filed this breach with the med field.

J_9

Again this is NOT a HIPAA violation. She was working for the doctor, whether a paid employee or a volunteer, she had legal access to the files.

Now had she taken the information she knew about the patients medical conditions and therapies and told others, such as neighbors, friends, etc, that would be a violation of rights. As long as she kept that info to herself, she did not violate the privacy of the patients.

theresarobey

yes I agree.to thatr but in fact if she was not legally employed as per what the doctor is saying than in fact she had no need to access the files whether she tells others or not. There is a fine line in reguards to the HIPPA laws ineffect. If in fact she was able to see these and she is not employed but just persay a person off the street it is in fact a violation because then whom gave her the access rights if not the patients. THIS is a very fine line i am sorry that you feel different. many times even as a nurse I am not allowed to know if people have certain illnesses that can put me at risk if the person does not wish for me to know.

J_9

She was an "employee" in a volunteer status.

LearningAsIGo

I'm sorry, this is incorrect. HIPAA has nothing to do with who gets a paycheck. I worked for several years as an unpaid nurse aid in every area of a hospital. Regardless of receiving a paycheck, I was entrusted to keep any material I came across on confidential status. It does not matter if I was paid, as stated above, because I was a "volunteer status employee".
Anyone at any level working (paid or not) is personally entrusted with respecting HIPAA laws.