A question about health care and privacy????

Can anyone who is familiar with the act tell me what HIPAA says about the following situation and specifically what part of the act covers it? Any information at all would be helpful:

I was recently at the hospital, and I checked out against medical advice (not smart, I know, but I digress). Because of the fact that I checked out AMA, a personal acquaintance of mine was concerned about the accuracy of what I had told her, because she personally thought I should have been admitted to the hospital. She had a friend that worked on that particular wing of the hospital, and she called her friend and asked her for information. This friend, an RN, pulled up my name in the computer and gave my acquaintance information about my medical history and treatment, simply because they were friends and attended church together.

Just because someone has a connection within the hospital, does that give them the right to access other peoples' medical records? Is this covered under HIPAA?

This is DEFINATELY COVERED under the HIPAA law. This person as well as your friend broke the law.
The RN there would have signed a privacy clause informing her that such an act is against the law and strictly prohibited.
IF you have viable proof of the occurrance you can sue the hospital for this. You can obtain proof by asking the hospital for a record of all staff that have accessed your records. No one who wasn't directly involved in your care during your stay should be listed. The dates and names of the staff members who accessed your chart will be listed and therefore you will have the name and date/time that this occurred.
Once you have this information, then go to the hospital administration and I would advise that you ask that this staff member be severely repremanded if not terminated. Depends on how you feel about the entire situation.

The DHHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) enforces the privacy standards. Enforcement of the civil monetary provisions has not yet been tasked to an agency.
Please refer to the AMA's FAQs on the privacy regulations for additional information on enforcement of the privacy standards.


I AM OUTRAGED!!! as I know you probably are as well...


EDIT: Keep me informed about this situation. I am very concerned to hear this occurred!

HIPAA is specifically made for these situations.
The RN violated the HIPAA law and can be fined if found guilty.
No matter if you checked out AMA or not, your friend does not have the right to anything in your record, including the fact that you were even there, without your written permission.
If I were you, I would first contact the administration of the hospital and then look up HIPPA regulatory commission and file a grievance with them.
If the hospital is JCAHO (joint accredited) you can also file a grievance with them. They could lose their accreditation over that.

Good luck.