[Jaimesue]

I work as a MA in a pediatrics office. Tonight I saw one of the parents in the grocery store whose child I gave shots to earlier. She said didn't I just see you at the docotrs office, you gave my kid shots. With out thinking I said oh yeah I did didn't I. was that breaking Hipaa?

[Fr_Chuck]

No, if you saw them at the store and told someone else in the store, they were just in the doctors office and I gave them shots, that is a violation.

In this case, the patient came to you and talked to you about the visit.

[Jaimesue]

What if my daughter was standing next to me and heard the patients mother say that? My daughter blurted out you have her kid shots! I smiled and tried to change the subject.

[Fr_Chuck]

The mother of the child, could have said it over the intercom, posted it on a billboard, If she started the conversation then it is not a violation. I have been introduced to large groups by patients as the medical tech who did this or that for them. Before I did a speech.

With a patients permission you can tell anyone, everything.

You merely answered their direct question. Without adding any further medical info

[joypulv]

You can of course give your daughter a little lesson in the importance of medical privacy at your place of work and how it relates to what happened outside of work. But that's another matter entirely.

I remember when HIPAA started and everyone was so uptight, yet I would go sign for a prescription when I picked it up at CVS, and there on the clipboard were the names and drugs of people I knew. There have been so many ways that it is applied in the most ridiculous ways, but not always in the most obviously needed ones.
I like to joke about how hospitals should issue paper bags to put over our heads for sitting in waiting rooms in case we recognize someone and both violate HIPAA.