HIPPA and finding someone who cares

I'm going into nursing school and from what I've read so far this HIPPA privacy bit is like serious business. Yet where I worked previously, I couldn't find anyone to take it seriously. While going through nursing school, I'm working for a diesel engine rebuilding company, and on a weekly basis we receive medical faxes. It seems the local lincare's fax machine is one digit off from ours. xxx-2855 vs xxx-2885. We get their faxes constantly. These faxes included, drug scripts, patient registration forms, patient SSNs, patient medical ID#, itenerarys (ie. Patient is leaving this address in cleveland and is flying into town on x date for 2 weeks, need x and y installed), test results, etc.

So I've called the lincares that fax stuff to us and the local branch that was the intended recipient. The ones that faxed stuff to us told me I was lying and couldn't have made a mistake. Another said they were "deeply concerned" and that it wouldn't happen again. It happened again the next morning. So I called the local lincare after I googled where they were and their number. The manager was "seriously concerned and will look into it". I faxed him copies of everything and he was going to call me back when he fixes the problem. 30 minutes later he calls back "Oh it was just a simple isolated case of human error, nothing to get worked up about, but if it happens again, just refax those onto me, and if you could throw those copies away" Needless "simple human error" happens about once every week or two. The manager didn't even want to drive 5 minutes down the road to get the faxed records. Just trusted us to dispose of them. So I've been saving them. I've got a stack of faxes about 3/4" high from the past three months.

So I looked up some number for florida's health department to call them, there's no "Hippa reporting hotline" that I can find. I got transfered from like desk to desk about 5 times. Got some state employee who assured me it was just "Human error and they couldn't do anything if the fax originated from out of state" and that "I needed to call that states department".

I'm just half tempted to show up at these patients houses and hand them their medical records and tell them what happened. I'd imagine if someone showed up at your front door with your name, address, DOB, SSN, etc I'd be pretty ******.

So what is the proper way to get someone to give a crap about this???? Obviously neither side is "deeply concerned" or the problem would be fixed. I would imagine the patients would be deeply concerned. I also don't want to jeopardize anything with my schooling. Like get in the news and be known at a rat/troublemaker or something. Is there any HIPPA hotline to call where people give a crap or is this just the norm?
CaptKris:Well, you're doing everything which could be reasonably expected of any concerned individual.The most that could be reasonably done would be to notify the faxing entity of the communication error and possibly note the contact info (names, titles, date, time) on the cover sheet. Perhaps you could contact an Administrative Official at the Institution. Put the Scare of the Cofidentiality Breach God into them.Distroy the confidential information. Isn't it said that pocession is 9/10's of the law? Or something like that.There's usually a disclaimer on the face page about communications sent in error. Anyhoo... Good luck to you.Dave

If you're going to care about something, care enough to know what it is that you're caring about:HIPAA-Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability ActNot HIPPAThank you.

Quote from RNandRRTIf you're going to care about something, care enough to know what it is that you're caring about:HIPAA-Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability ActNot HIPPAThank you.

Finishing my second cup now. Cheers.

Quote from rnandrrtif you're going to care about something, care enough to know what it is that you're caring about:hipaa-heath insurance portability and accountability actnot hippathank you.

Fax it back to the originating number with HIPAA VIOLATION written in huge letters over every page. In fact I would send it on an hourly basis just to be sure you get their attention.

Please dispose of the info RIGHT NOW. You were asked to do so. Many faxes have face sheets that state something to the effect that if it was faxed to you, destroy immediately or face criminal penalties. You want to make a big splash with the info? Because it seems like that is what you're looking for. Then take the stack of papers down to the CEO of the company, and place them on his/her desk. Heads will roll, for sure.Don't scoff at the issue of human error. What if one of the company's phone lists accidentally listed your fax number? We have lists of frequently used phone and fax numbers on cards in our badge holders. If hundreds of employees were issued that, it will take *forever* to get the word out to destroy them and use the new number. Or if 50 fax machines were mis-programmed with the wrong number, it takes time to reprogram them. If they are manually typing in numbers, and hundreds of fax numbers are typed daily, then it isn't far fetched to think that someone might occasionally press the wrong number.Privacy *is* taken very seriously, and the company should be made aware that it continues to happen. How can they fix it if they don't know? If you called, talked to them twice, the second time they called you back and said they addressed it, how do they know they *didn't* in fact fix the issue if you don't call them again.Hold them accountable, for sure. Call, fax, or visit them directly. Ask them for their corporate compliance number (for reporting purposes). Do NOT, however, continue to keep the info, and do NOT give the info to ANYONE else, including the patients. That action is guaranteed to backfire on you, in a very nasty fashion. You don't deserve to be on the receiving end of some sort of legal action, but keeping the info or distributing it in any manner could set you up for that.

Please file a complaint. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa...nts/index.htmlI work in health insurance (while pre-nursing) and if this was happening in our department, the manager would be fired for repeated offenses of the employees. We take HIPAA VERY seriously. My company won't even accept/send faxed medical records anymore due to this reason, we only send it electronically via a secured system.

Quote from CaptKrisI'm going into nursing school and from what I've read so far this HIPPA privacy bit is like serious business. Yet where I worked previously, I couldn't find anyone to take it seriously. While going through nursing school, I'm working for a diesel engine rebuilding company, and on a weekly basis we receive medical faxes. It seems the local lincare's fax machine is one digit off from ours. xxx-2855 vs xxx-2885. We get their faxes constantly. These faxes included, drug scripts, patient registration forms, patient SSNs, patient medical ID#, itenerarys (ie. Patient is leaving this address in cleveland and is flying into town on x date for 2 weeks, need x and y installed), test results, etc.So I've called the lincares that fax stuff to us and the local branch that was the intended recipient. The ones that faxed stuff to us told me I was lying and couldn't have made a mistake. Another said they were "deeply concerned" and that it wouldn't happen again. It happened again the next morning. So I called the local lincare after I googled where they were and their number. The manager was "seriously concerned and will look into it". I faxed him copies of everything and he was going to call me back when he fixes the problem. 30 minutes later he calls back "Oh it was just a simple isolated case of human error, nothing to get worked up about, but if it happens again, just refax those onto me, and if you could throw those copies away" Needless "simple human error" happens about once every week or two. The manager didn't even want to drive 5 minutes down the road to get the faxed records. Just trusted us to dispose of them. So I've been saving them. I've got a stack of faxes about 3/4" high from the past three months. So I looked up some number for florida's health department to call them, there's no "Hippa reporting hotline" that I can find. I got transfered from like desk to desk about 5 times. Got some state employee who assured me it was just "Human error and they couldn't do anything if the fax originated from out of state" and that "I needed to call that states department". I'm just half tempted to show up at these patients houses and hand them their medical records and tell them what happened. I'd imagine if someone showed up at your front door with your name, address, DOB, SSN, etc I'd be pretty ******. So what is the proper way to get someone to give a crap about this???? Obviously neither side is "deeply concerned" or the problem would be fixed. I would imagine the patients would be deeply concerned. I also don't want to jeopardize anything with my schooling. Like get in the news and be known at a rat/troublemaker or something. Is there any HIPPA hotline to call where people give a crap or is this just the norm?

OP- get rid of that stack of information. You're going to hang yourself in the process here. Shoot yourself in your own foot with trying to string up someone else. Come on, can't you just be the honest person you're trying to promote and simply shred the HIPAA sensitive materials before even lifting the cover sheet? You'd see it's coming from the medical facility, right?

The fact that you are keeping the info disturbs me just as much as the people who keep sending it. Shred the docs at once as instructed. That is what you should be doing. Don't make a bad situation worse.If it happens again call the company and ask to speak to someone in Risk Management. Fax them a copy and let them know what is happening. That should resolve it in a jiffy.

I assure you I'm not looking to make a mountain out of a molehill or trying and get some kind of publicity with it. Both sides have assured me it's a once in a while "Human error". I've spoke to managers at lincare, faxed over copies, etc. I should add that we've been disposing these faxes for over a year and it's just rather annoying. Our fax machine is quite an antique and we rarely receive faxes so they use up our paper and ink so getting a simple fax from a customer requires a trip to office max for another cartridge. The only reason I was saving them was both sides blow it off as a once in a while thing. 3 months with one every week or two is not a once in a while thing unless we've really lowered expectations. Maybe I didn't make it clear enough. I've faxed them copies of their wrong faxes, I've called 3 different branches, I've been assured that "they are deeply concerned and the problem has been fixed" twice, I called the state that is supposed to be regulating this, they assured me it was no problem and to just destroy the stuff.Seems simple but their problem is they're faxing sensitive stuff to the wrong number. Their solution is have legal put a disclaimer at the bottom that says it must be destroyed. Poof. Problem solved. Straight out of the Dunder Mifflin playbook of excellent corporate management. I know it may sound like serious out of the box thinking but what's wrong with fixing the fax number? Whatever happened to taking responsibility combining that with initiative and handling the problem? God forbid we have to push some buttons and reprogram some fax machines. Definitely moving mountains there. I'll file one report with the link provided (thanks) and if that doesn't pan out; I'll throw the stuff away, or sell it on craigslist .