HIPAA Covered Entities

[Sonnyboy]

but I feel we should all take care and avoid prescribing, dispensing, and/or diagnosing in response to the information received.

What do you mean by that?

For a start:

Google: License to prescribe medication in the state of California.
Google: Scope of practice diagnosis California
Google: Who can dispense medications in California.

You can substitute where you live for California.

[Sonnyboy]

While it may not be appropriate for an individual to give "medical" advice, I do not believe it is illegal or "actionable", unless, of course, the individual claims to be a professional and is not. Otherwise, any advice given by a lay person is just personal advice and though it may be bad advice I don't think there is an accountability issue unless, perhaps, it could be shown the advisor had an intent to harm the recipient.
Just as all of the forgoing could not be considered "legal" advice, since I am not a lawyer, non-professionals, by definition, can not give "medical" advice.
Now, "dispensing" medications which fall under the Controlled Substances Act is a different story.

Likely a lot depends on who you are, where you are, how you portray yourself, who you are giving advice to, state laws, etc. and then of course how much risk you are willing to take.

Dispensing medications also includes over the counter medications like Tylenol, Advil, Aspirin, etc.

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

First, advice might be considered "the practice of medicine" when the person giving it claims he or she is a doctor. 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. So your friends cannot be considered to be practicing medicine when they tell you to take more vitamin C, since they never claim to be doctors.
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.

Another example,

You can purchase marijuana in Arizona but not in California.

Someone might feel safe to smoke a joint in their home with friends in California, but not walking through
through town or on campus.

If you have questions regarding your particular situation then you need to consult an attorney.
There are many gray areas.

I am not an attorney. We can agree to disagree and that's okay with me.

[BlackSpinner]

avoid prescribing, dispensing, and/or diagnosing in response to the information received. .

So you are saying that when some one posts about chest pain we should not tell them to "go to ER NOW!" to have it checked out?

[Sonnyboy]

avoid prescribing, dispensing, and/or diagnosing in response to the information received. .

So you are saying that when some one posts about chest pain we should not tell them to "go to ER NOW!" to have it checked out?

Let's not be ridiculous!

[ems]

I will forever regret using the word HIPAA.

Please don't regret using the word HIPAA. And please, don't feel you have to defend your position or answer inane questions.

[palerider]

[quote="BlackSpinner" All you have to do is phrase it "Many people find X, Y or Z is helpful to them in similar instances"

Education is great always, but I feel we should all take care and avoid prescribing, dispensing, and/or diagnosing in response to the information received. This is my opinion. We can agree to disagree and that's okay.[/quote]

I don't actually see where you're disagreeing on this point

it looks like you're both saying something on the order of "tell people what you would do, but don't tell them what to do"

a fine line, but it's there.

[The Choker]

Sonnyboy wrote:
avoid prescribing, dispensing, and/or diagnosing in response to the information received. .

I don't believe you have given this thread much thought before you posted it. First, you seem to deal with privacy issues (HIPAA) and then something about one person giving another person Ambien gets inserted.

In any case, I hope you are not trying to create undue alarm from the nice people who give great help to unfortunate others on this forum.

[palerider]

Sonnyboy wrote:
avoid prescribing, dispensing, and/or diagnosing in response to the information received. .

I don't believe you have given this thread much thought before you posted it. First, you seem to deal with privacy issues (HIPAA) and then something about one person giving another person Ambien gets inserted.

if you'd been paying attention, you'd know that someone giving someone else unprescribed ambien was where this *started*

[DeadlySleep]

I hope you are not trying to create undue alarm from the nice people who give great help to unfortunate others on this forum.

I don't think anyone who goes by the moniker, "The Choker", on a sleep apnea forum has to worry about being mistaken for a doctor.

[chunkyfrog]

Doctor Maxwell, I presume?

[archangle]

While it may not be appropriate for an individual to give "medical" advice, I do not believe it is illegal or "actionable", unless, of course, the individual claims to be a professional and is not. Otherwise, any advice given by a lay person is just personal advice and though it may be bad advice I don't think there is an accountability issue unless, perhaps, it could be shown the advisor had an intent to harm the recipient.
Just as all of the forgoing could not be considered "legal" advice, since I am not a lawyer, non-professionals, by definition, can not give "medical" advice.
Now, "dispensing" medications which fall under the Controlled Substances Act is a different story.

I disagree. I have read the definitions. The real catch is the "facilitating" bit, which could mean anything.

In particular, the definitions are ripe for legal harassment. It's another case where, with a good lawyer, or even a good judge, you should be able to get the case thrown out, but you could be in for a lot of expense and harassment. You could also still lose in the end.

[archangle]

avoid prescribing, dispensing, and/or diagnosing in response to the information received. .

So you are saying that when some one posts about chest pain we should not tell them to "go to ER NOW!" to have it checked out?

Actually, that's possible. The "practicing medicine" laws have been written by stupid and corrupt legislators aided and abetted by medical mafia lobbyists.

That particular one might slide by, but there have been a number of cases where a ticked off doctor or other litigious person has misused the "practicing medicine" statutes to harass someone for something they said.

Unfortunately, "innocent until proven guilty" is long gone from the American legal system.

[poppi2]

I will forever regret using the word HIPAA. . .

I'm willing to bet that it will be a long time before HIPAA is incorrectly referred to as HIPPA, or HIPPAA, on this board.

[Judge Nap]

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.

[Krelvin]

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.

that is not what HIPAA its about. 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.