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OP the nurse didn't ask your weight in front of others, she asked if YOU knew your weight, a nice simple yes/no kind of question. (I don't really keep up with my weight so I generally only have a general idea what it is. I always ask the nurse to tell me what it is on the rare occasions I wind up in a doctor's office.) This was not sharing or shaming, and it's an assumption on your part that she was trying to cut corners. Life is too short to look for offense where it's not intended.
She asked you whether you knew your weight - she didn't tell the room your weight. It'd be a big stretch to make this into a HIPAA issue.
Yes, but she was putting me in a position to answer in a public setting, how did she expect me to respond? She was standing several feet away, essentially shouting into the waiting area, also, acting annoyed that I walked slowly. she then turned around and huffed off so fast I couldn't keep up and didn't see which way she turned, so she flounced back acting annoyed and repeated we need to know your weight! loud enough for the whole room to hear!
I should have said if I guess correctly, do I win a Caribbean cruise?
As a former HIPAA officer for a mental health clinic - the HIPAA Privacy Rule is intended to be scaleable: the practitioner (or agency) must take reasonable precautions to ensure all Protected Health Information (PHI) is kept confidential. Reasonable depends on the size of the organization. The steps a private practitioner takes will be less than those required of a larger organization like a hospital. A large hospital, for example, might have a full time HIPAA security officer - for a small agency, this will probably be a role taken on by one of the agency employees.
My CVS pharmacy has a sign asking people to stay behind it to protect the privacy of the person at the window. That's about all they can do given the physical layout of the pharmacy. If the pharmacist speaks loudly or the next person ignores the sign, the next person in line is going to hear him/her. HIPAA doesn't require the pharmacy to change its physical layout - employees are, however, required to receive training on HIPAA and how it affects their work. Not talking loudly in the context of my pharmacy would be an example of a best practice.
If it were me and I were asked that question, I would nicely ask her to please ask those sort of questions out of a public area. And I would certainly put it on the survey - you're not going to "upset" your doctor. The survey will most likely be reviewed by the office manager, who is likely the HIPAA officer for the office - they may need to review their procedures and employee training to reduce the likelihood of this happening again.
HIPAA laws allow the medical office to share your information electronically with whatever government agency asks. It doesn't protect your privacy but instead is a legal document in which you allow them to collect and share your information.
Read the documents thoroughly before you sign. Or -- don't sign them, and see the reaction from office staff.
Wrong....on all counts
HIPAA is ABSOLUTELY about protecting patient privacy in regards to medical information.
It also does not allow sharing of medical information with "whatever government agency asks"
It also is not " a legal document which allows the medical office to collect information"....medical offices could ALWAYS "collect information"....that's kind of what medical offices do...
The HIPAA Privacy regulations require health care providers and organizations, as well as their business associates, to develop and follow procedures that ensure the confidentiality and security of protected health information (PHI) when it is transferred, received, handled, or shared. This applies to all forms of PHI, including paper, oral, and electronic, etc. Furthermore, only the minimum health information necessary to conduct business is to be used or shared. What is HIPAA
How do they share information? Carrier pigeon?? Smoke signals?? Good gawd.
HIPAA is about sharing your information, not keeping it private. That's why you sign the release.
If they were keeping it private and not sharing it you wouldn't need to sign anything.
HIPAA = sharing.
I sincerely hope you do not work in a healthcare field or any field in which you'd have access to personal health information because you've been corrected multiple times and keep making the same wrong statements.
Anyway, back to the OP - something doesn't have to be a HIPAA violation to be unprofessional and inappropriate. This behavior is absolutely something that should be brought to the attention of the practice.
And while you may personally be normal weight, as someone who is overweight, I can tell you that the nurse's behavior is rooted in fat shaming even if that wasn't directly applicable to you. I can just about guarantee that the reason she tried asking you and skipping the step of putting you on the scale is because you are thin, but a fat person would never be trusted to accurately report their weight.
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