You have a point on the baby showers and friends, but for the medical side, it’s a different matter. As a medical person who had to take a course on HIPAA, I can tell you it’s not that simple. It doesn’t have to go with a gag order, but rather HIPAA law. Any hospital worker of any type is bound by HIPAA, which imposes a big fine and possible prison time for release of Protected Health Information.
Further, the information won’t just be lying around, easy to access. If records from 1961 are still retained, they will be paper and stored offsite (cheaper than expensive hospital space) in a secured facility. Anyone wanting access will have to go through an administrative procedure and leave a trail. Hospitals are absolutely paranoid about violating HIPAA law.
The California Department of Public Health has fined Bellflower Hospital in Los Angeles County $250,000 for numerous violations of the privacy of Nadya Suleman, the mother of octuplets.
The fine is the maximum under privacy legislation enacted last year in California. The hospital, part of Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente, is the first organization to be fined under the new laws. The department assessed the fine after determining the hospital failed to prevent unauthorized access to medical records. “This fine should be a reminder that there are consequences for violations of medical privacy,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said in a statement.
All total, 21 employees and two physicians, some from other Kaiser facilities, improperly accessed Suleman’s medical records. The organization in March fired 15 employees and disciplined eight others.
California Senate Bill 541, enacted last fall, authorizes fines against health facilities for privacy breaches. Companion legislation signed at the same time, AB 211, authorizes fines against individuals. It also authorizes referral of licensed practitioners to appropriate licensing boards.
Text of the bills is available at leginfo.ca.gov. Click on Prior Session, and then click on the Chaptered version of the bills.
University Medical Center in Tucson has fired three clinical support staff members and a contracted nurse for “inappropriately accessing confidential medical records,” the hospital reported on its website Wednesday. The records were related to Saturday’s shootings at a Tucson supermarket that killed six and wounded 13 — including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D- AZ). “We are not aware of any confidential patient information being released publicly,” the hospital said in a statement.Note that in this case no information was released, the employees were fired merely for looking. If information was released, the employees would have faced prison time under HIPAA
Those who think medical workers can casually access medical information and pass it along think in preHIPAA terms. Heck, I have had bureaucratic problems getting information from a paper chart that's only 4 years old, and I was treating the patient involved.