Q: I recently filed a complaint against my insurance company. The insurance agent who handles my case informed my boss that I filed a complaint against her. Now my boss is mad at me, and I feel like my job is at risk. Is this a HIPAA violation?
As telehealth expands and technology improves, there are an increasing number of options for communication between healthcare providers and patients as well as between providers, but such services raise concerns for HIPAA compliance due to the method of transmission and issues of security compliance.
Q: A pain specialist practice called to set up an apointment for my wife while she was out. She has various medical problems, and I am often in contact with her doctors. I asked if I could set up the appointment, and they said it would be a HIPAA violation to speak to anyone other than the patient about their schedule. Is that correct?
University of Washington Medicine in Washington state is notifying 974,000 patients about a data breach which left their health information exposed online for weeks. This follows a recent breach announced by the University of Connecticut Health which affected 326,629 individuals in December.
Q: At the doctor's office where I work, patients are often friends or family members of staff. I heard in passing that my co-worker's boyfriend was coming in for an appointment later that day, when I mentioned it to the co-worker, she said she would be filing a complaint for a HIPAA violation. Is this really a HIPAA violation?
