HIPPA

deniseE

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-29-05 AT 09:43AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I don't want to debate the right, wrong or otherwise sides of the Terri Schaivo matter, but I am curious to see if the rest of you find that perhaps there are some serious HIPPA violations about discussing her private medical situation with the entire free world.

What business of ours is it if she hasn't urinated since Sunday?


edit...it should be HIPAA

Don D

Interesting point. Related; yesterday we got a lengthy HIPAA update from corporate, actually a long list of reminders regarding the dos and don'ts. At the conclusion of all of this long list appears this statement: If there are questions, please condact Mary Jones who is temporarily standing in for Jane Doe who usually handles this but is on maternity leave, expecting twins, and who will return on or about X. Talk about a HIPAA violation!!

JudyT929

Apparently since she is "brain dead" she has no rights. We should all have written instructions what we want our loved ones to do in a situation like this, I sure wouldn't want to be kept alive for the sake of someone else.

Pricehcs

two words - living will


#1 thing a consultant shouldn't say: "I could tell you the answer right now, but we're committed to a three month project..." #-o

Parabeaglex2

Everyone who needs a living will should make sure that it COMPLIES with all of your local statutes. Time and again in my paralegal life I have had to re-do directives to physicians and "living wills" that came out of a box from a stationery store and would not be honored because of language, etc. Spend a couple of hundred bucks and let your lawyer do it for you when he does your will (which I'm sure you all have, right?)

On a related note, my heart goes out to the Schiavo family. My brothers and I had to make a decision regarding my father when he was near death and it was the most difficult one I've ever made in my life. Although he could not talk, he wrote a note saying that he did not want any heroic measures taken to keep him alive. Three days later, on the edge of death, he wrote that he had changed his mind and wrote "I want to live."

Whatever

I have a living will (and since I signed it I keep telling my brother how much he loves me and beg him to forget anything I did to him when we were children x0:) ). One problem is that this woman's privacy has been invaded not only by her family (both sides), but by the doctors, the nurses, the lawyers etc. etc. If she had any dignity left, it is down the tubes. Furthermore, I don't really care what the autopsy shows.

Pricehcs

I wanted to make a joke about the 'down the tubes' line, but I can't bring myself to do it...

I agree, not interested in the autopsy either. It is a valuable lesson for all of us on what not to do...


#1 thing a consultant shouldn't say: "I could tell you the answer right now, but we're committed to a three month project..." #-o

irenesmsaclaims

Under HIPAA, the patient can authorize the release of PHI or if incapacitated, an authorized representative can act in his or her stead. While Terry's incapacity preceded HIPAA, I'm guessing that as her guardian, her husband would be the authorized representative. It seems to be the family's choice to have all of this information given to the media. I'd like to know if the medical personnel giving out statements have such authorization specifically.

Don D

Maybe I'm totally wrong; but, I have not seen hospice personnel giving out information as much as the onslaught of a bunch of goober-headed news media people and talking heads on the cable channels pretending to be doctors. HIPAA does not cover journalism graduates with diarhhea of the mouth.

irenesmsaclaims

True about the journalists, they aren't covered entities subject to the HIPAA privacy rules, but there were some medical personnel (one nurse, I think) who gave out information to the media. I'm not sure if it was a hospice nurse, but someone during the 15 long years of Terri's confinement.