HIPPA Violation?

Working in private practice - patient's sister calls describing herself to be patient....new patient that has never been seen before. Sister requests path report results, thinking this is the patient, information was provided. At end of conversation, patient's sister tells you 'I am actually her sister and I was just trying to clear up some information for her. Since there is a problem with transportation we will have to reschedule.' You ask when she would like to reschedule patient's sister tells you she has to look at her calendar and find a day and time she can bring her to clinic.
Is this a HIPPA violation?
I don't see how this could be considered a HIPAA violation, since the sister misrepresented herself as the patient. How could you have possibly known that she was lying?

Thank you for clearing this up! How do you handle cases where patient does not speak english but family member does and family member would like to know results of labs/scans etc?

OP--I would think that the patient would have to give written permission for you to give the info to a family member. I'm fairly sure that the permits could be translated for the patient so that she/he would know what they were agreeing to.

Actually I think this is the classic HIPAA violation. Medical information was given out to someone not the patient, and worse someone pretending to be the patient. You should have said that information cannot be given over the phone without positive identification, such as a password chosen by the patient at their first encounter. Birth dates or SS numbers can be obtained fraudulently by many methods.

Quote from RNAchot83Thank you for clearing this up! How do you handle cases where patient does not speak english but family member does and family member would like to know results of labs/scans etc?

Quote from nurse2033Actually I think this is the classic HIPAA violation. Medical information was given out to someone not the patient, and worse someone pretending to be the patient. You should have said that information cannot be given over the phone without positive identification, such as a password chosen by the patient at their first encounter. Birth dates or SS numbers can be obtained fraudulently by many methods.

Anytime a call comes into my facility and asks for results I simply state "Nurses cannot give results only the medical Doctor". Anytime you give results you may be interpreting which is out of our scope. I know you meant well and this has happened to allot of us.

In the future, I would absolutely get the caller's name and number and then have the DOCTOR call them back. What if it wasn't actually the patient's sister? And LAB results were given? Definitely walking a fine line there. Patients are told at the time of the visit that lab results will either be mailed to them, or that someone from the office will call THEM. It is never appropriate to give lab results over the phone when someone calls, for specifically this reason.

Quote from noahsmamaI'm curious -- does the facility where you work have this policy in place, or does this come up very often where you work? I know that when I worked in peds I very often got calls from the "parents" -- sometimes I had already met them and might recognize their voice, but most of the time I just took their word for it that they were the parents. I wasn't the only one who did this -- this was pretty much the norm at this particular peds hospital. We did have a few sensitive cases where we knew that other family members, or even the media, were trying to get info on the patient -- in those cases we had a code word that they would have to give us to get info, but otherwise I think we pretty much just took the callers word for it that they were the parent. I'm not aware of any occasions when someone who wasn't actually the parent got info on a patient this way, but I can certainly see how that could happen.

Quote from noahsmamaI'm curious -- does the facility where you work have this policy in place, or does this come up very often where you work? I know that when I worked in peds I very often got calls from the "parents" -- sometimes I had already met them and might recognize their voice, but most of the time I just took their word for it that they were the parents. I wasn't the only one who did this -- this was pretty much the norm at this particular peds hospital. We did have a few sensitive cases where we knew that other family members, or even the media, were trying to get info on the patient -- in those cases we had a code word that they would have to give us to get info, but otherwise I think we pretty much just took the callers word for it that they were the parent. I'm not aware of any occasions when someone who wasn't actually the parent got info on a patient this way, but I can certainly see how that could happen.

Quote from RNAchot83Working in private practice - patient's sister calls describing herself to be patient....new patient that has never been seen before. Sister requests path report results, thinking this is the patient, information was provided. At end of conversation, patient's sister tells you 'I am actually her sister and I was just trying to clear up some information for her. Since there is a problem with transportation we will have to reschedule.' You ask when she would like to reschedule patient's sister tells you she has to look at her calendar and find a day and time she can bring her to clinic.Is this a HIPPA violation?

In the ER I work at we receive many of these phone calls. Normally they ask if so and so is in the ER and as long as they have not blocked their information we can say "yes" or "no." If more information is requested I normally have the family come to the phone or return the call. Even though we are only trying to help, patient privacy is something to be taken serious and our patients trust us to keep their information private. As far as giving out lab values that is something I only do if requested by the MD, out of the RN scope to interpret. In your situation, it doesnt sound like you will be reprimanded. Maybe just a wake up call, next time could be worse?! I would definately check out the policy where you work to find out just what information you can and cannot give out.