The hospital left a message concerning my wife's medical procedure on another employees message machine. My wife has signed no forms permitting the hospital to talk about her medical condition with any of her co workers. The co worker who received this message on his answering machine says that he was very embarrest because he knew that he was hearing information about my wife's medical procedure that he was not supposed to be hearing, he deleted the message without even wanting to hear any more, but the tape is always reserved. We are told that we can not sue for violation of the hippa law concerning this matter by one attorney, is this correct? Or is this attorney wrong? If we can indeed sue, does anyone know of any good attorneys that will handel our case?

First, it is HIPPA and not hippo. What the hospital did was wrong, very wrong. But... trying to sue over this is not going to be easy. You would need to prove some sort of damages that your wife suffered for the attorney to prove your case. If one attorney already told you he would not take your case, and another attorney tells you the same thing, then I guess they don't think the grounds are strong enough for you to win in any event. Sometimes just being right is not enough to win.

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

First, it is HIPPA and not hippo.

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Actually it's HIPAA, not HIPPA or hippo.

Unfortunately, sometimes mistakes happen. While I agree it is a violation of your wife's privacy, you would be better served to take it up with the hospital privately rather than in court. There was no permanent damage done, your wife has not lost her job, and lawsuits such as this are VERY costly and the hospital has huge legions of attorneys on their side.

Again, this is better handled between you and the hospital and the person who made the error should be reprimanded.