[jessesam]

3 yrs ago I was approached by my boss and a visiting store manager (there as his witness of the conversation with me) that a pharmacist from a store I used to work at told him of a prescription I filled for myself using a wrong name and birthday; the prescription was filled correctly but they wanted to know why I did that. I explained I did it because that Pharmacist always told me he was in my profile looking for my age, and he would find it by looking through my insurance files; reason I did that. 3 years later a new boss (who is not a pharmacist) and his witness --a pharmacist from another area and the co-manager of the store had a pow wow with me and the whole thing came up again, the only people who knew about this was the original R.Ph and one who was coming back to the area from out of state who used to have my job, so I feel this was a conspiracy, now 3 people know about medicine I didn't want anyone to know about and a medical condition I have. I want to sue the people involved and the company for this, I feel this was a gross violation of the HIPPA rights. Am I correct and can I sue the company and the individuals

[Couchcarrot]

One of the main responsibilities that a legitimate pharmacy/pharmacist
Has is to be vigilent about fraudulently presented prescriptions.

"Patient appears presenting prescriptions written in the names of other people."

Using a fictitious name and birthdate is a criminal offense when getting a
Prescription filled, no matter what illness you wish to conceal. You are
Putting the pharmacy at risk for prosecution as well, so they have every
Right to confront you about it. Consult an attorney in your own area
To get more information about this.

[JudyKayTee]

3 yrs ago I was approached by my boss and a visiting store manager (there as his witness of the conversation with me) that a pharmacist from a store I used to work at told him of a prescription I filled for myself using a wrong name and birthday; the prescription was filled correctly but they wanted to know why I did that. I explained I did it because that Pharmacist always told me he was in my profile looking for my age, and he would find it by looking through my insurance files; reason I did that. 3 years later a new boss (who is not a pharmacist) and his witness --a pharmacist from another area and the co-manager of the store had a pow wow with me and the whole thing came up again, the only people who knew about this was the original R.Ph and one who was coming back to the area from out of state who used to have my job, so I feel this was a conspiracy, now 3 people know about medicine I didn't want anyone to know about and a medical condition I have. I want to sue the people involved and the company for this, I feel this was a gross violation of the HIPPA rights. am I correct and can I sue the company and the individuals

You committed a crime - I'm actually surprised you aren't in jail. I don't think they care about what medication you take and your medical condition - I think they care about you filling a prescription for yourself in a fake name, using a fake birthdate.

HIPAA has nothing to do with this - they were discussing criminal activity, not medication. I think you brought this on yourself.

My husband was a Doctor of Pharmacy, a Regional Manager, and I am shocked and surprised that you weren't criminally charged. I've seen people charged, suspended, fined, given probation and/or jail for lessor offenses. In NY your conduct (and I'm guessing you were/are a Pharm Tech) could have caused the Supervising Pharmacist to be warned, suspended, fired, lose his/her license.

Consult with an Attorney but if I were you I wouldn't bring any more attention to your fraud than it has already received.

[jessesam]

I hate to tell you how many do this!!

[JudyKayTee]

I hate to tell you how many do this!!!!

Hopefully no one who works in my husband's pharmacy - and the fact that other people do it doesn't mean it's either legal or ethical, if that's your point. Is this the "Well, I'm bad but they are worse?" defense?

You could very well have ended someone else's career because you took advantage of your position.

[ScottGem]

Judy and Couch are right on here. You should consider yourself lucky that you haven't been blackballed from working at a pharmacy. If you were concerned about privacy you should have filled the prescription at a different store.

Another issue here is that people misunderstand HIPAA to a large extent. HIPAA is not a license to sue. It's a set of rules that medical practitioners have to follow or they face fines or other sanctions.

So I would drop the matter and be thankful you are still employed.

[jessesam]

It is nice to live in your fantasy world, one person writes who knows everything because her HUSBAND is a pharacist (I was unaware a marriage license gave you the right to pose as your spouses occupation) that is a CRIME! It seems no one works where there are Many RPhs at one time, so they are unaware of reality, where pharmacist (that I saw) put bogus RX's in for the customers to see if their insurance would pay and how much it would be, for a prescription, before they came to fill it .
I see you people have NO skeletons in YOUR closet. Take your head out of the sand and wake up to what is really going on out there

[JudyKayTee]

It is nice to live in your fantasy world, one person writes who knows everything because her HUSBAND is a pharacist (I was unaware a marriage license gave you the right to pose as your spouses occupation) that is a CRIME!! It seems no one works where there are Many RPhs at one time, so they are unaware of reality, where pharmacist (that I saw) put bogus RX's in for the customers to see if their insurance would pay and how much it would be, for a prescription, before they came to fill it .
I see you people have NO skeletons in YOUR closet. Take your head out of the sand and wake up to what is really going on out there

If you feel I am posing as a Pharmacist, by all means call the State Licensing Commission and forward this thread to them. They'll pull your IP address as well as mine and probably investigate us both. No problem for me. I'm not so sure about you.

I have no idea why a Pharmacist would put "bogus" prescriptions into the actual computer instead of just using the search engine. I don't see how this is the same as you filling a prescription with a fake name but apparently I don't have your mindset.

I've decided, yes, this is actionable under HIPAA - or HIPPA, as you put it. You should retain an Attorney and sue the chain, the Manager, everyone who passed the information along. Come back and let us know how it works out for you.

And, yes, you're right - I have no skeletons in my closet.

[ScottGem]

It is nice to live in your fantasy world, one person writes who knows everything because her HUSBAND is a pharacist (I was unaware a marriage license gave you the right to pose as your spouses occupation) that is a CRIME!! It seems no one works where there are Many RPhs at one time, so they are unaware of reality, where pharmacist (that I saw) put bogus RX's in for the customers to see if their insurance would pay and how much it would be, for a prescription, before they came to fill it .
I see you people have NO skeletons in YOUR closet. Take your head out of the sand and wake up to what is really going on out there

You know that you really haven't a clue! First, its not uncommon for spouses to know a good deal about their spouses careers. I would imagine this is especially true of pharmacists who run their own stores, where its likely the spouse helped in the store.

Your example of using bogus information to check pricing or coverage sounds ridiculous. As an IT professional, I know there are ways to enter transactions without committing them so there would be no reason to enter it with bogus info. I also talked to a pharmacist friend of mine about this situation. He supported your contention that this does go on (filing bogus prescription info), but its not as prevalent as you suggest and it IS against the law. He also confirmed that most pharmacy software has the ability to do such price/coverage checking without leaving a transaction.

So the bottomline here is what you did was illegal. There is no question about that. Whether its done often or not doesn't change that fact. The fact that it may be done so often and that you did have a decent excuse for doing it is proably why you haven't been fired.

But, the fact is that your employer had every right to investigate and record this incident. Therefore no HIPAA violation. And, more importantly, no grounds for a law suit.

One last point. You came here for advice. There is no guarantees that the answers you get will be the ones you want, but the regulars here do pride themselves on the quality of the advice given out. Its rather rude of you to attack people trying to help you because you didn't like the answers.