There was some good discussion of whether it was proper (legal) for the
pharmacist to notify the prescribers (probably not), but if he stole the RX
book, or someone suspected he stole the RX book, that was a (potential)
crime and should have been reported to the police. I was thinking about
HIPAA
is not intended to *preclude* use of PHI for treatment. Consultation with other
providers for treatment purposes is specifically permitted, under the broadest
terms of any of the HIPAA use/disclosure provisions.
But
the definition of CE does not include governmental *law enforcement*
Title: RE: Here is a good Privacy Issue that will cause problems
I would argue that releasing information that a patient has been restricted to one pharmacy is not a disclosure under HIPAA. A disclosure must contain a person's identifying information and information on their health status. I
Tim,
I must respectfully disagree with your
fundamental analysis of this scenario. Pharmacists (chemists) have, for
more than 2000 years, been part of a triad (including physicians and nurses)
engaged in an on-going clinical (NOT business) practice of ensuring that the
correct
Hate
to say it, but I disagree: Under HIPAA a pharmacist's job is to establish and
comply with certain policies for privacy, security and electronic claims
processing. It is a pharmacist's *professional* obligation to avoid (or
mitigate) harm to individuals, and HIPAA is not intended to
We provide each patient with a summary of our protocol for dispensing of
pain meds, the anticipated length of time post op., etc. We have the patient
sign the form authorizing any and all pharmacies to provide a prescription
profile upon request, giving the patient a copy. This has been a
