Really pushing HIPAA with this one, but with good cause
Yeah the sticker sentence especially. That’s essentially the same as saying that the kid got the shot. HIPAA doesn’t say “it’s ok to reveal private health information as long as you do it in a wink-wink manner.” Revealing personally identifiable health information is forbidden no matter how you do it.
Even agreeing that her son was at the doctor was a violation. We can’t confirm or deny that a potential patient even came to the building for health care.
See now, I decided I could read that as “your son deserved a bravery sticker for having to bear up with you as a mom.”
Since the mom made the visit itself public, and lied about the conversation, and the nurse didn’t specify what either person DID say, nor what actually was or wasn’t done, I’m not sure any new information was revealed. Implied, if you want to infer it, but not stated. And for the mom to sue about it, she’d have to publicly admit to her own lies…
Psst…the responder isn’t really the nurse from the story. It’s someone pretending to be the nurse and blurring names so that they can rile you up.
That nurse’s name?
Albert Einstein.
It already read like one of those “and then they all clapped” posts.
That last comment is 100% actionable by both her employer and the patient.
Don’t be dumb with that shit. Judges don’t fucking listen to it was just a joke wink wink unless you have some good fucking lawyers.
Can you explain how exactly? They only mentioned that they gave them a sticker at the end of the appointment.
Is it purely the fact that they admitted there was an appointment?
I don’t agree.
Protected Health Information, PHI, includes anything used in a medical context that can identify patients. Although it doesn’t explicitly address personally identifiable information, the HIPAA Security Rule regulates situations like this under the term Protected Health Information (PHI). Some examples of PHI data can include:
- Name
- Address
- Date of birth
- Credit card number
- Driver’s license
- Medical records
None of those were revealed. If some intrepid ambulance chaser wants to argue “i gave your son a sticker” is a “medical record”, go for it. Hell in some Bumblefuck red state county you might get in front of a judge with that. But you will not be making any money off of it, and no serious attorney would waste the court’s time.
Ragebait folks. Yes it might exist out in the wild but do something better with your time.
