Addiction Treatment Hipaa Violation Question
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I am somewhat upset about a phone call that was made to my home phone about a week ago by the doctor office I go to for addiction treatment because now someone knows that I AM receiving addiction treatment services, where I receive those services and the medication I am taking for the addiction. Let it be known that I did NOT give this doctor office consent to talk to ANYONE other than myself about my treatment, EVER. I do have roommates that I don't necessarily want knowing information about my doctor's, medication or course of treatment, it is not their business. The doctor office called my landline number very early on a Tuesday morning and I was asleep so one of my roommates answered the phone. Later in the day, I looked through the caller ID and saw my doctor's office had called so I ask my roommate if she had answered the phone and she said that yes she had and then she began telling me that my doctor office had called and left a message with her saying I needed to come in the following day for a pill count on my Subutex. Immediately, I was upset. This roommate did not know and did not need to know I was being treated for addiction and what would have happened had she NOT given me that message and I would have missed the pill count? I bet I would have gotten kicked out or something and the worst part about it, they did NOT even bother asking my roommate who she was or anything else so they had absolutely no idea who they even talked to that following day when I went in for the count. At that time, I informed them no one is to be given any information about me at all unless I consent to it in writing. People definitely do look at you differently when they find out you are receiving treatment for an addiction and this has caused issues between my roommate and myself, all thanks to my doctor office disclosing information about me to her when it should have never happened. I've been in treatment for nearly a year now and have only told select few people about my treatment. Is it a HIPAA Violation since they told my roommate that I needed to come in for a Subutex count? I know the damage done cannot be erased but is crazy that even happened!

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Re: AWV304 (# 1)

At the present time, that is definitely a violation of your privacy and HIPPA'S privacy practices. This seems extremely negligent and unprofessional. I would have definitely followed up on my options to pursue this issue. Often times, these situations go unnoticed and are thrown to the side simply because that person doesn't want to lose their doctor as I know those type of qualified physicians are far & few between. Don't compromise your morals & principals just to remain with that particular clinic. Something else is bound to happen in the near future concerning privacy laws, and if not to you, it will be another patient.

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Get the dr fired. Unless you can’t find another subutex dr.

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To be honest, it is kind of a gray area of the law, they are allowed to leave messages, make contact, and etc., but they are supposed to use their discretion regarding how much information to disclose. That same link that the highlighted word messages leads to will also provide other details regarding health information privacy.

As to leaving voicemails, or answering machine messages, they are allowed to do that.

In most cases, you also have to sign paperwork, when you begin treatment, which might specify how they can make contact, what they can disclose, and etc.

So, overall, it is likely that they've done nothing wrong, legally, and voicing your displeasure is the most you can do.

I am very sorry this happened to you, I would also be very upset. I had a nurse that was giving medical details to my old roommate, once, when I was in the hospital. When he stopped by, she just assumed he was someone it was okay to talk to, without checking. I did not appreciate it, either.

Have you read over the paperwork you signed?

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Also, this very same doctor's office said about a week prior to this second call, they got into my relatives chart, got her phone number from HER CHART and called her to tell her to have me to get in touch with them and said they left a voicemail message. My relative also attends the clinic and knows I attend but is not authorized to be given information about me and I have personally asked them to not give her information about me. The biggest problem with this is, my relatives cell phone if that's what was called, is not and has not ever been set up to accept voicemail messages, when you call and get transferred to the "voicemail" a message comes on notifying you that the person has not yet set up their voicemail and basically tells you to try your call later and hangs up. There's no way to leave a voicemail for this relative. The second problem with that is the fact that my relative lived in the same house with me for a period of time so her contact number listed in her chart was MY HOME PHONE NUMBER and they did NOT call my home phone number that time and definitely did not leave a voicemail on it. I searched the caller ID log all the way back to I the end of the previous month and they did not call it. I also called the phone company and got the password for my voicemail box so I could double check because we never had a passcode for it and there was no voicemail. That concerned me very much wondering who's phone they called, what kind of information was left on that voicemail since it WAS a relative they know extremely well I am close to and what may someone be doing with that information if any was given? I am positive at least my name was left on that voicemail that was left on who knows who's phone. I am very glad that they make every effort to attempt to contact you if there is a situation that needs addressed promptly but I do not like that they tell anyone who answers the phone information about you and get into another patients chart and start calling numbers in that chart leaving random voicemails. It's scary, I do wonder who else this may have happened to.

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