A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry


HIPAA rules - Huh?


Posted: Oct 08, 2013

When a consultant's office calls the referred patient, is that office allowed to say the name of their office?  Ex:  Got a call from a GI office for my husband.  The woman gave her first name and said she needed his medical hx before she could schedule an appointment.  I asked what office she was from, and she said she couldn't say because of HIPAA but that it was a referral from his PCP.  Is it true that because of HIPAA we can't even know who's requesting personal confidential info? 

makes sense - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm sure if she were speaking to your hubby, she could've said where she was calling from, but she cannot tell you without specific permission from him. What if she were calling from psychiatrist/HIV specialist/OB-GYN/transgender surgeon office (just trying to think of specialties that our hubbies wouldn't want us to talk to, LOL)?

OTOH - without knowing who is calling, I'd be releasing zero medical history.

My beloved can barely remember his basic demographics - forget meds, dosages, dates, illnesses, etc. And he does not do medical-speak whatsoever. All his physicians have an authorization from him to speak to me - saves us all a lot of time.

Weird, but kind of correct - LOL!

[ In Reply To ..]
That was kind of a weird call, but she was correct that she could not say what kind of office it was, for the reasons mentioned in the post above mine.

She could have told your husband and would have identified herself to him. One hopes.


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