Hey guys, I worked with a general dentist for four years. During my last year with him, he got into the Market America vitamins business & decided he wanted to sell those to the patients. He brought in a Market America rep (who was one of his patients) who created a form for all the patient's to fill out every time they came in. My problem was that this rep would come in every day and look through the patient's chart to find candidates to try and sell these products to, and she would call them on the phone. The doctor knew she did this & encouraged her, and she was not an employee. The patient's never knew she was doing this and gave no consent for her to look through their charts. What do you think?

Yep, definitely a HIPAA violation, assuming the patients hadn't signed some sort of general release that would have covered this. I am assuming here that the Market America vitamins are diet supplements, and hence can not be defined as part of recommended medical treatment for the patients' conditions.

Yes they're supplements, even says on the bottles that they can not be verified by the government. And no they did not sign general consent forms. I'm the one who had to type up the forms & the only one's they had to sign were to be able to share their info with another doctor, which she definitely was not.

Definitely a breach of patient confidentiality. What do you plan to do with this?

What is the contract agreement and arrangement between the marking rep and the dentist. Before I call it wrong, if there is a contract agreement, that would make the sales person in some either employment status, as a employee or as a 1099 contractor, merely using the forms to attempt to sell your own customers additional items.
The files never leave the office, and I will assume the dentist is making a commission off this.

I mean many medical supply companies, have sale or marketing people that go and use client lists and contact them for additional sales.

This is absolutely a HIPAA violation. Sorry, Chuck, but even if there were an agreement between the rep and the dentist, the rep has no right looking through files without the express written permission of the patient.

Client lists and medical records fall into two different categories.

I agree... this is not concerning medical/dental issues... this is strictly to solicit patients... I would report it... what does your gut tell you?

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Originally Posted by J_9

This is absolutely a HIPAA violation. Sorry, Chuck, but even if there were an agreement between the rep and the dentist, the rep has no right looking through files without the express written permission of the patient.

Client lists and medical records fall into two different categories.

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I still think the exact relationship can make a difference, if this was a employee of the dentist and they were going though to see who may need additional services, or other dental or health products that is something done all the time.

A employee in a dental office sends out notice for cleaning ( in the mail on a post card with all info open) Many clincis will call about or have someone talk to the patient before they leave about other items.

A doctors office who hires a billing service, or a transcript service, has non employees doing and looking at patients records to write up the records or bill. They are not employees but have contracts with the doctor. The patient has not given permission for those outside firms.

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

I still think the exact relationship can make a difference, if this was a employee of the dentist and they were going though to see who may need additional services, or other dental or health products that is something done all the time.

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Then those medical practitioners are committing HIPAA violations. The only ones allowed to review ANYTHING in any medical record are the people providing direct care, billing departments, insurance departments, etc.