I don't think this is OT because we had a number of questions lately about CA's having private health info. This is a small snippet from THe Tuscaloosa News about the University of Al. 's spring pratice report. Brodie Croyle and Brandon Avalos were both out of practice for what Price called â??personal" reasons, in keeping with the new university and NCAA policy regarding the confidentiality of medical information. Price said that Avalos, a redshirt freshman from Hillcrest who is also an outfielder on the Crimson Tide baseball team, would not be available for Saturdayâ??s A-Day contest. Avalosâ?? family confirmed that he was hospitalized on Wednesday night with an initial diagnosis of appendicitis. A stomach virus reportedly sidelined Croyle. While Price made no comment on the medical situation of his starting quarterback, he did say that he expected Croyle to play in the A-Day Game. Price also said that â??there has been a virus going around on the team, although Iâ??m not saying that is what heâ??s got." I would say if a football coach can't say his QB is hugging the toliet, it's gonna be hard for a CA to keep reporting a PAID medical collection. Hopefully, Why Chat can comment some more on his letter.
I work for a medical billing company and we have been looking at HIPAA very seriously. I spent a few hours discussing what is permissible disclosure with other employees from our company last week. As we are a billing company it is important that we know what we can disclose and to whom. HIPAA doesn't go into effect until April 14, 2003, for some regulations. Others, like data security, go into effect this October. When you visit one of our clients, starting on and after April 14, you will receive and sign notice of receipt for our "Notice of Privacy Practices." While you may ask that certain information about you not be disclosed in the hope that your information will not go to a collection agency, the provider is not required to agree to your request. Our Notice of Privacy Practices specifically notifies the patient that "we may use and give your medical information to others to bill and collect payment for the treatment and services provided to you." Listed beneath this is "Billing Departments, Collections Departments or Agencies, and Insurance Companies, Health Plans..." By using the services of the provider you agree to these practices. Many of our clients will blacklist a patient who lets their account go to collection. So don't plan to visit that doctor ever again. Further, I am unsure how effective it would be against a collection agency since they have not disclosed "Protected Health Information" about you, your doctor did to them, with your knowledge and agreement and the disclosure is allowed by law. A collection agencies' tradeline should only list the original creditor, which would be the facility or doctor's name. This is not necessarily protected health information. What it comes down to is: do you really want to file suit against a doctor in a town you likely live in who likely makes several times what you make and will likely slap you with a counter-suit for not only what you owe but for malicious prosecution? Its kinda like walking up to an army base, pointing a gun at the soldiers there and hoping they'll surrender to you. I'm sorry but I just don't see HIPAA being the magic weapon that others do. You might scare some people into capitulating but you might just get smacked hard if you're not careful, especially since there is no case law yet on this subject.
So what happens when someone is billed for a service that they did not receive (billing screw up)? Is it ok for that patient's info to go to a collection agency even though that patient has paid their bills in full? Let's say a woman goes for a checkup and has a UTI so thay do a urine test. The woman pays in full and leaves. But someone in the office enters that the patient had a checkup, test for UTI and adds (wrongly) that they also had a test for pregnancy, STD or whatever. If that account goes collection for the test mistakenly added to the patients file, is the info of their visit that did happen also included in what the CA sees? Makes me glad I stay away from Drs. lol. In my state the Drs. can't even pay thier insuracne, much less have money to fight in court about billing problems.
Tru enough. i dont suppose the majority of the people here are wanting to ditch legit bills. I assume that those fighting the bill either had soem problem with the insurance not paying what it should have or for genuine errors. If the Dr. and or collector vioalte your rights then damn right they ought to be sued just like any of us. As for Dr.'s not being able to pay insurance: i am not sure of the costs they are probably pretty high but it was something to see on the news when several Dr.'s walked away from their posts after learning malpractice ins was going up..
If you go to the HIPAA letter on my website, you will see it SPECIFICALLY says it is NOT for "credit repair" purposes. It is ONLY for those who wish to pay a legitimate bill, or those whose credit reorts reflect inaccurate accounts from a HC provider. From the responses already received from those who have PROPERLY used the letter, it seems to be accomplishing it's purpose. There is NO provision under HIPAA for a private right of action, so "suing the friendly old Town Dr." is not an issue. Nor is there any question that anyone obtaining health services NOW could possibly use the letter in the future. This is ONLY for accounts that are "PRE" any signing of any privacy waivers. It WILL NOT work for a legitimate debt, unless the instructions to PAY the account in full are followed, and THEN the account is disputed to the CRA after 4/14.
I have just such a situation and the bill was for ambulance service and it was paid back in 1998 and paid in full. However, due to the fact that my son was injured and so he being a minor child at the time required that a court settlement be reached which took several months after which time the ambulance bill was paid by our attorney. The ambulance Co. sent it to a collection agency who put it on my credit report. Will I have a leg to stand on to get it off after April 14 that I don't have now?
Bill, You should be receiving via snail mail a copy of your insurance provider's updated (HIPAA required) privacy notice concerning medical information. I know this for two reasons: 1) I received mine today from both of the health insurance companies that I deal with; 2) I work in the insurance (primarily life though) industry and we have had a scramble for updated HIPAA training this past week. Now, while the training is mostly for the company line that sells dental/vision coverage, my department deals with PHI (personal health information) in relation to underwriting requirements for life insurance. And the training is required for any associate that "might" come into contact with this type of information. Anyway, the information that you receive should give you a good idea on where you stand as far as what can be disclosed and what is strictly off limits. But, as far as my very basic understanding of the law, the following is allowed by HIPAA: disclosure to provide treatment; disclosure for payment (so they can bill you); disclosure for operations (to review your treatment and evaluate staff performance); required by law (the disclosure itself is required by law, but they have to notify you of such instances); public health; communicable diseases; health oversight; abuse or neglect; legal proceedings; food and drug administration; coroners, funeral directors, and organ donations (if you're dead are you really going to care?); research; criminal activity; military activity and national security; workers' comp; inmates; and to comply with the requirements of 45CFR, Title II, Section 164, et. seq. OK, in that text it probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but as I said previously, you should be (if haven't already) been sent a notice of all of this. There should also be contact information somewhere on the notice in case you have further questions regarding this. If nothing else you can contact your local Health and Human Services office to get more information. Hope that this helps you somewhat. If not, sorry for the long post!
I may or may not receive it of course. Only time will tell but I really think I may not get it. I don't carry any health insurance policies or any kind and I'm not eligible for medicade or HMO care under any and all normal situations unless I choose to be for some special reason. ABout the only reason I would ever come into contact with that kind of stuff would be in the event I was out in some remote area or other and had to have immediate treatment for some injury due to accident. But even then I would not be billed for any kind of medical treatment. I did get into an auto accident up in Hutchinson, Kansas several years ago and the local cop demanded that I go to a hospital and when they got me to the hospital they asked me to sign a financial responsibility statement which I refused to do. So they went ahead and treated me and then billed the city of Hutchinson for it and they had to pay it. Even if they hadn't got their money out of the city they still could not have billed me for anything no matter how costly the treatment might have been. Not even for an extended hospital stay which would not have happened in any case. They could not deny me treatment and they could not force me to sign for financial responsibility and they could not have collected even if they had gotten me to sign for the treatment. So we shall se whether I get the form you speak of or not. However that has little bearing on the subject of collections. HIPAA specifically makes provision for the collection of debts by 3rd party collectors and there is no disparity between HIPAA and FDCPA whatever. That is made clear in HIPAA. The only real hurdle at all is that they must have a special type of contract with the health care provider who is their customer and there are restrictions on what information they can pass on to other parties such as credit bureaus but they can pass on anything at all to their attorneys or the courts if demanded.
Butch, thanks for the info. Bill, Ummm, ok, not sure sure how you manage to get out of paying for medical expenses, but I'll take your word on it. The information that I gave was under the assumption that you did have some kind of medical/health coverage. So, I guess it was a moot point. However, it should also apply to any care givers, although don't quote me on that. The crap that I had to sit through for work was geared toward the life insurance aspect of HIPAA and what my department was required to do to comply with the new standards that are going into effect within the next few weeks. And then it was mostly based on the security of the information that we do have on site.
ROFLMAO!!! OK, you got me there. My imaginative side was thinking that it was something on the shady side. Sorry!!
No problem. VA don't always do it for free however. Back before I got my pension somewhere about 1960 I got my leg sliced wide open with a skill saw while working on a construction project. I'd just got on the job that morning and the first thing they had me do was to saw a piece of 2 by 12 planking for floor joists. I was in a squatting position and the saw pinched and kicked back on me. That might not have been so bad but the blade guard stuck in the up position so the saw ripped right through my knee cap and proceeded up my leg for about a foot. Well, the first thing I thought of was VA hospital so I told them to take me there and they did. Just in a private car. The docs cleaned it all up and sewed my leg up and I didn't think too much of it really but later I found out they billed workman's comp and made them pay the bill. I had another case before I got my disability too where I fell out of a tree and broke my back and VA put me in the hospital for a week while I recuperated. After a week I just got tired of laying in that hospital with nothing to do so I demanded they let me out because my wife's grandad had died in Goodland Kansas and she wanted to go to the funeral. So we left the hospital and packed what we needed and hopped in the car and I drove for about 6 hours straight and got into Goodland before I could get back to bed. But VA didn't charge me a crying dime for nothing even though I wasn't disabled yet at the time. Lots of people rail against the VA hospitals but as far as I am concerned they are the finest in the world. While there are a few things they don't normally do for a vet such as eyeglasses or dental, they take good care of their veterans to say the least.
Yeah, I know this all too much. They recently covered my grandpa's emergency triple-bypass at a privately owned hospital since the VA hospital here was "decommissioned" a few years back.
