Enlightening Meeting

Going to work today brought a mix of dread and boredom to have to attend an all morning meeting. However, my eyes were opened on one of the topics of the day. The one topic that gripped me was on HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountablility Act) and the privacy rule protection of individuals health information and their rights.

While working in the health industry for years you become accustom to maintaining a patients privacy and being careful on what you say and document. However, there is a whole other sinister world out there ready to illegally grab that information in any devious way they can, which makes it all the more imperative to remain vigilant in our privacy rules and proceedures and to become more proactive to prevent this.

Yep....IDENTITY THEFT. We all know it exists. We read about it every day. Many of us have experienced it. But how much do we really know the degree and lengths a criminal will go to, to get that precious information. They sit in medical offices listening for any private information from staff and other patients so they can gather their personal data. How many times have you or someone you know, gone into an office and sat there "visiting" with another patient, telling them all about your health problems, your insurance coverage from where you work, where you live, how many kids you have, who they are. Have you exchanged phone numbers, email addresses and home address and even your birthdate if you just happened to have one with someone you know? Then the clinical staff comes out and calls you by name. HMMMMMMMM.....
The "criminal" now has a boat load of info on you and is prepared to use it!

There are people who sit in offices to hear the nurses call pts. Yes, Mrs Jones, this is Kathy withs Dr. So and So's office and we have your XYZ prescription (vicodin, OXY whatever) called into ABC pharmacy and it should be there for you. Let me just verify your date of birth, address and phone number and insurance. Joe the crook then goes to ABC pharmacy after waiting the appropriate time, states Mrs Jones is in the car and not feeling well after her surgery...but I'll go see if I can get her to come in if it's a problem and yep you guessed it...he is given the RX. A half hour later the REAL Mrs. Jones goes into get her RX and it's not there. This is a reality folks and is only going to get worse.

My advice is to really watch where you are, know who you are talking to and be careful of what info you share openly when others are within listening distance.