Please help if you can direct me. I have just learned I have some inaccurate information in my medical file at my doctor's office. The HIPAA website says they are to discuss it with me and allow me to amend everything. They will not even discuss it. Their attitude is that their technology causes the slanted diagnosis to appear and if anyone sees it then I should explain it to them. They have now referred me to someone who is not returning my phone call. I am trying to find a lawyer, but there are not many lawyers familiar with HIPAA from the patients perspective. I KNOW I can file a complaint with the government, but I would prefer to amend my record ASAP. Does anyone know a legal practice familiar with this? Is it against the site rules to give that info to me? Anyone know what I could do? I already have the website info for filing with the Office of Civil Liberties. So please don't direct me there. Thank you.

Your doctor has inaccurate information in your medical file? HIPAA concerns unauthorized disclosure, not accuracy in the file, as far as I know.

Get another doctor.

Agreed, you are tilting at windmills.
Out of tens of thousands of HIPAA claims, I think one famously was considered valid by the agency a year or 2 ago. It might be 2 or 3 by now.
A lawyer will cost you far more than it's worth.
Find a new doctor, ditto

Get a new doc? Of course. However it doesn't help me now. And yes, HIPAA laws do protect our records. With new technology, as a matter of convenience alone, at least this doctor is inputting information and the computer program spits out a diagnosis that attaches to your file. In my case a FALSE diagnosis. I suggest you check your records. You may be in for a surprise. Apparently HIPAA came about because of the current technology and the information highway.

Check our records? Which ones?
Of course you have a right to have your records be correct.
(And it's strange that a doctor would be so cavalier about a false diagnosis based on some technological glitch. I'd be curious to know about it.)
It's just that HIPPA has a huge backlog, and in the first 3 years alone took in about 24,000 complaints and took no action on any of them. The known cases were large ones involving whole companies, universities, or the media. It could be years before you even get a response.

Joypulv, I don't really want to plaster it on the Internet :-) but suffice it to say that I think you would raise your eyebrows over it. May I ask how you know the knowledge you do about HIPAA?

And yes, HIPAA laws do protect our records. .

You are correct. HIPAA does give a patient the right to review their records and have corrections made. The question of what is a correction is however at issue here.

You are claiming that a false diagnosis was made. On what do you base that claim? Are you a medical professional that can diagnose yourself? Have you had another medical evaluation that disagrees with the diagnosis? Apparently you feel that that the program your physician is using to maintain your records someone entered a false diagnosis. Before a physician can use such software it needs to be approved by HIPAA so it is in compliance with their rules.

So, what I see the problem here is that you are disagreeing with the diagnosis. That doesn't mean its false and therefore doesn't mean it can be corrected. If you pursue this in the legal arena, that diagnosis and your reasons for disagreeing and your physicians reasons for the diagnosis will become public.

ScottGem, I will pursue it because it is my "civil right by law," which of course is the purpose of the HIPAA laws.

Also I did get to speak with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights and we have a "right" by HIPAA law to "amend" anything in our records. They were very informative, helpful, and knowledgeable. Additionally, they didn't sound too back logged as they will investigate within 60 days if necessary and no back log was mentioned. Laws are in place for a reason. When we feel our rights are violated in our free country we have the freedom to speak up to defend ourselves. God bless America! :-)

I didn't say it wasn't your right. Nor did I say anything about a backlog. Nor did I say anything to deny you your rights.

You put quotes around the word "amend", amend means to change or alter. Here is what The HIPAA site says about your medical records:
Have corrections added to your health information
You can ask to change any wrong information in your file or add
information to your file if it is incomplete. For example, if you and your
hospital agree that your file has the wrong result for a test, the hospital
must change it. Even if the hospital believes the test result is correct,
you still have the right to have your disagreement noted in your file.
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/consumer_rights.pdf

So this supports what I said. You are claiming the information is false. The doctor disagrees. You have the right to have your disagreement noted in the file. You do not have the right to have the diagnosis changed if the doctor disagrees.

So I ask again, why you feel the diagnosis is false. Do you have a second physician's opinion to support your contention? Unless you do all you will get is your disagreement noted in the file. I doubt if this will take 60 days. The investigator is going to ask the same questions I have asked. He will then ask the physician why he made the diagnosis. As long as the physician can justify it, case is closed.

Now I have to wonder why this is so important to you? Since your records are kept private no one will know of the diagnosis unless YOU make a big thing of it.

ScottGem, sorry if my communication was confusing. In my response, my first answer was to you, hence the very first sentence. Then a new paragraph because I was addressing pass posts where others had commented on a backlog and I was basically speaking to everyone else. However, to respond to your current comments, in speaking with someone who is an authority on HIPAA, I was told the correct terminology is 'amend.' I also encountered the use of that term in reading the HIPAA law. Anyone with a medical record has the right to amend something in their medical record. There are good reasons the HIPAA law is in existence. And after talking with the doctor, he does in fact agree with me that he probably shouldn't have input what he did as a diagnosis. The doctor is willing to change it. However, it is a legal document and cannot be changed except to be amended. And certainly you must realize there are instances where medical records are looked at? Because like you said, why else would I be concerned? Anyway, I have become very knowledgeable concerning HIPAA at this point. I am grateful for the laws and the departments in place that regulate and enforce them seeking to protect private citizens, as well as give them an avenue for recourse. Thank you for your concern. I got this.

Thanks for clarifying and I'm happy you are getting the resolution your wanted. There are issues with HIPAA but it is generally a good law.

But I did want to comment on this point.


And certainly you must realize there are instances where medical records are looked at? Because like you said, why else would I be concerned?

The main purpose of HIPAA is to PREVENT medical records from being looked at without the patient's permission. I can conceive of very few instances where I would be concerned by a false diagnosis at least to the point where I would want anything more than my disagreement noted in the record.

I don't understand why the doctor can't add a notation to your record that upon a review of your condition, he has determined that the original diagnosis was not appropriate. This is an "amendment" to your record that does complies with HIPAA rules and should satisfy your objections to the original diagnosis.