Is this a HIPAA Violation?

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Innovoj27

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I work at a hospital. I was going on medical leave. My physician sealed all my medical paperwork for my privacy in an envelope. I signed the seals and on the front was written "for this patient's privacy please do not open unless medically necessary or Human Resources." My nurse manager's secretary requested this paperwork be turned into the office. The sealed medical information was opened by the nurse manager without my permission. There was no medical reason for her to open this paperwork. . She does not work in Human Resources. She never requested verbally or otherwise from me if it was permissible for her to open my sealed medical documents.
I was informed by the department which handles leave requests that she should never have opened this paperwork neither should she have requested it. She only needed to see the single page that she needed to sign and her requesting via her secretary the paperwork was improper procedure. Is this a violation of HIPAA?
 
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HIPPA Violation

Hi, I am new to this so hopefully you can answer my question...

I just filed bankruptcy and included a dentist's office in it. I had to go to a new dentist because of this and when my new dentist's office called my old dentist's office simply to ask when I had my last cleaning, the receptionist at the old dentist's office proceeded to tell the receptionist at the new dentist's office that I owed them a balance. She went on to tell her the amount that I owed and how long it had been since I made a payment. The receptionist at my new dentist's office got very frustrated since she was just calling to check when my last cleaning was as I had already informed the new dentist's office that I filed bankruptcy and included the old dentist. She told me that this was a violation of HIPPA and I was just wondering if this was true and if so, what could I do about this. I don't think it is right to have my financial past revealed by someone who has no right to do so. Plus it brings up the point of how many other people have they done this to. Please help!
 
The easiest litmus test for a HIPAA violation is the question, "Was access of the information necessary to perform the job at hand?". If not, you've probably got a HIPAA violation. If the needed information was contained within the envelope, the exposure to the additional information in the envelope was incidental, and would have been unavoidable when the individual performed her job. If so- no HIPAA violation. But- to access the information for a reason OTHER than to provide patient services (medical or clerical) would have required YOU to have completed a release for the hospital. (In a hospital, even accessing YOUR OWN medical record without completing a release for YOURSELF is a HIPAA violation, even though you work there and have easy access to it.)

I would report the incident to the HIPAA officer of the facility. The HIPAA officer should be able to determine whether or not the accessed information was appropriately accessed. These officers are in place to analyze situations exactly like this. Take it to them and see what they say.
 
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