HIPAA Covered Entities

[ChicagoGranny]

that is not what HIPAA its about.

I guess you did not read many posts in the thread.

If you care to read them, you will see several posts inferring there are legal dangers of offering advice in this forum.

(I also skip over many posts as a matter of routine.)

[Huh?]

It is to protect confidential information from being exposed to entities and other parties that should have no right to it.

A patient is not controlled by HIPAA, the providers are. The patient can decide who has access to their information.

Sorry, but I have enough experience to disagree with you. We had three parents in nursing homes at one time and my husband and I were responsible for them (POA and Health Care POA).

We had to jump through a lot of hoops and endure delays and multiple discussions because of the providers' fear of HIPAA. These were good people wanting to help us and help our parents, but they operated under the unreasonable constraints of HIPAA.

[ems]

It is to protect confidential information from being exposed to entities and other parties that should have no right to it.

A patient is not controlled by HIPAA, the providers are. The patient can decide who has access to their information.

Sorry, but I have enough experience to disagree with you. We had three parents in nursing homes at one time and my husband and I were responsible for them (POA and Health Care POA).

We had to jump through a lot of hoops and endure delays and multiple discussions because of the providers' fear of HIPAA. These were good people wanting to help us and help our parents, but they operated under the unreasonable constraints of HIPAA.

Huh... just so you know, the HIPAA discussion has come up as the result of people attempting to give advice/help to others on the forum.

In my personal experience with HIPAA over the years when family members were in housing facilities, it became more about what Krelvin said rather than discussions between us and the actual caregivers.

[Krelvin]

that is not what HIPAA its about.

I guess you did not read many posts in the thread.

If you care to read them, you will see several posts inferring there are legal dangers of offering advice in this forum.

Actually I have, I just don't agree with them.

The ONLY time advise is possibly a legal danger is if you promote yourself as a Dr and you aren't. And that itself is not a HIPAA issue.

HIPAA relates to the control of a patients data from your Dr, its organization, your insurance, your employer etc.. The whole point of HIPAA is to protect the patients data.

If a patient provides some info (their info) to a self help forum looking for help, that can't be a HIPAA violation because the patient is giving out the information of their own info. They have the right to do with it what they want. some of it might not be wise, but still not a HIPAA violation.

Should people be posting details of their medical info? Good question, but not a HIPAA related one.

If you ask a dr about a spouse, child or relative and permission has not been granted for you to know, and they tell you anyway, that is a HIPAA issue. They have to give permission to whom their patient data can be disclosed to. run into this a lot with prescriptions for my wife as an example.

[ChicagoGranny]

Actually I have, I just don't agree with them.

The ONLY time advise is possibly a legal danger is if you promote yourself as a Dr and you aren't. And that itself is not a HIPAA issue.

+1

[archangle]

It is so sad that we have come to the point, where good people wanting to help others, have fear that their government may inflict serious harm upon them for their good deeds.

Yes, it is.

The ONLY time advise is possibly a legal danger is if you promote yourself as a Dr and you aren't.

Would that that were true. Unfortunately, the corrupt laws do cover a lot more than that. You are treading on dangerous ground when you give advice that is specific to a particular person's illness or injury.

http://healthcare.findlaw.com/patient-r ... icine.html

However, I don't advocate that we all crawl into our hole and hide like good little peasants. We do need to understand the risks. These laws and the system have been grossly abused many times.

Worse still, the quack drug sellers get away with it all the time.

[Krelvin]

The ONLY time advise is possibly a legal danger is if you promote yourself as a Dr and you aren't.

Would that that were true. Unfortunately, the corrupt laws do cover a lot more than that. You are treading on dangerous ground when you give advice that is specific to a particular person's illness or injury.

http://healthcare.findlaw.com/patient-r ... icine.html

A link so generic to be next to useless. Provides no examples of what we are talking about and has absolutely nothing to do with HIPAA the primary topic of the conversation.

I'd be more impressed if you found a law link to an actual prosecution attempt for someone on a self help forum helping another similar user on that forum.

The link you provided doesn't include anything like that.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Second, advice may be the practice of medicine when the advice is specific to a particular person's illness or injury. Magazines and websites that offer general tips for getting over the common cold, therefore, are not engaging in the practice of medicine. - See more at: http://healthcare.findlaw.com/patient-r ... f-medicine.

I think this information from the link arch provided is referring to advice given in a "professional" setting or in return for compensation of some kind. Notice the mention of Magazines and websites. However, even then it is a bit sketchy.

There is a story about a blogger from NC who gives dietary advice and the State tried to charge him with practicing without a license (diet/nutritionist). He did provide specific advice and fee based coaching. The blogger countered with a suit claiming the State was attempting to curtail his First Amendment Rights. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120 ... ment.shtml
The Instituted for Justice http://ij.org/paleospeech said

But the First Amendment does not allow the government to ban people from sharing ordinary advice about diet, or scrub the Internet—from blogs to Facebook to Twitter—of speech the government does not like. North Carolina can no more force Steve to become a licensed dietitian than it could require Dear Abby to become a licensed psychologist.

In February 2015 North Carolina surrendered.

And no, it has nothing to do with HIPAA

[Jay Aitchsee]

But speaking of HIPAA, I'd like to post again that, since Feb 2014, HHS "has taken action to give patients or a person designated by the patient a means of direct access to the patient’s completed laboratory test reports." and I would assume "laboratory test reports" includes overnight sleep studies, but I'm not absolutely positive.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2014pres/ ... 0203a.html

[IreneN]

According to the site referenced:

"This is because the title of "doctor" indicates that the person giving advice has gone through the rigorous process of medical school and succeeded in obtaining a medical license."

Not true. The title of doctor is an academic conferring of a doctorate degree. It doesn't even imply a medical degree. Furthermore, simply possessing the title, even MD or DO, does not imply any kind of licensure. Licensure is by state, and even if a doctor is licensed in one state, he/she is not licensed automatically in all states. So even a licensed doctor could be practicing medicine without a license if they practice in a state other than that in which they are licensed.

Just sayin'.... since we're nitpicking.

An anecdote or two about a lay person being prosecuted for this type of behavior doesn't define the law. I think this is all being blown out of proportion. IMO, a "reasonable man" interpretation would be that it should be understood that the people on this forum are not dispensing medical advice, merely sharing personal experiences and suggesting options for consideration and perhaps discussion with medical professionals. What somebody does with that info is their business and their judgment...nobody is obliged to follow the suggestions offered.

[IreneN]

Oh, and as far as HIPAA, I don't think that even if somebody here posted somebody else's data on the internet that it falls under HIPAA guidelines, since we are not Covered Entities. But then, I'm not a lawyer... or a doctor.

[ChicagoGranny]

I think this is all being blown out of proportion. IMO, a "reasonable man" interpretation would be that it should be understood that the people on this forum are not dispensing medical advice, merely sharing personal experiences and suggesting options for consideration and perhaps discussion with medical professionals. What somebody does with that info is their business and their judgment

Some words of wisdom from the North Shore.

Thank you.

[IreneN]