[FrankAZ61]

I emailed my doctor regarding a health issue. I found out later he was out for a period and contacted his associate through a nurse. Today, the doctor returned and read my email. I was contacted by a nurse that said that I cannot email the doctor because it IS a HiPPA violation. She said it was not a secure system, but I was just guessing at his email address when I sent the email. BTW, she said I cannot email him again.

Is she correct that this is a HIPPA violation?

[ebaines]

The only people who can be guilty of HIPAA violations are health professionalsand health plans, so the fact that you emailed your doctor is not by itself a violation (I am assuming you are the patient here and not a health professional). HOWEVER, if your doctor responded back it could be a violation. His using email for confidential medical information is a violation unless his office complies with some very stringent rules as to how email records are stored and handled. I bet his office does not have the sytems in place to comply with these email rules, so it has been drummed into the nurse's head to never use email for confidential medical information. And now she is just parotting that same line back to you. In fairnss - they are probably pretty sensitive to this, and are playing it safe so that you don't send email with confidential information and then sue them for not having a secure HIPAA-compliant email system.