Doctor offices viewing all your prescriptions at a pharmacy (patients, prescribe, failure)
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You may not believe me but seriously almost no one is going to risk their career and the time and money invested in the education needed to get there to go snooping in a medical record.
Apparently, a lot of people do just that, whether it's snooping on celebrity medical records or co-workers or neighbors' records. And yes, many get caught, but that doesn't seem to stop it.
And thousands of medical images are online: "Millions of Americans’ Medical Images and Data Are Available on the Internet. Anyone Can Take a Peek. Hundreds of computer servers worldwide that store patient X-rays and MRIs are so insecure that anyone with a web browser or a few lines of computer code can view patient records. One expert warned about it for years." See link below for the story.
something is off here. unless they are part of the same system (i.e. kaiser type system) docs cannot access pharmacy computer systems that i know of.
a state's controlled substance data base is NOT a pharmacy prescription data base although the info in it comes FROM pharmacies. they data bases are managed by the states. as far as i know the states don't yet communicate with each other, there is no federal controlled substance prescription data base.
No, this is not about any controlled substances, nor a state-controlled substance database.
This involved a private chain pharmacy, a large healthcare system, and an independent dentist who prescribed an antibiotic.
Yes, the doctor's office at the clinic can view all prescriptions at a private chain pharmacy for a particular patient, whether that doctor prescribed them or not. That's the point of my original post. The doctor's office could see the antibiotic that was prescribed by the dentist 2 months ago in the chain pharmacy's online database. The discussion on this thread is about medical records privacy, who has access and how that access is granted.
I agree with you 100%. My eye doctor's assistant saw every one of my prescriptions from my pharmacy, even though I had not given them a list. I don't like this at all. Don't understand why he would need all this info anyway.
Exactly. Unless it's relevant to a particular eye problem, then no, the eye doctor doesn't have a right to see all of your prescriptions, IMO. The eye doctor should have first asked permission to view your pharmacy history. And I still maintain that it is the pharmacy's responsibility to inform patients that their Rx records are viewable by any provider and ask for consent. In my case, none of that happened.
Piggybacking on your post about eye docs, I once went to an eye doctor for a refraction app't (new glasses prescription) in another state when I moved a few years ago. He gave me a basic form to fill out about any chronic conditions (diabetes, heart disease, etc) and any meds I was currently taking. No problem with that. However, I don't have any chronic conditions, I wasn't sick when I visited the eye doctor for new glasses, and I don't take meds on a regular basis. I wasn't on any medications at the time of the appointment. So the form didn't have much info.
This eye doctor was in disbelief. He actually accused me of not telling the truth because I didn't have any major medical conditions and I wasn't taking any chronic meds. It was unbelievable. I got up, said I was fortunate to be healthy, and told him I had changed my mind about getting new glasses.
Here's a good article about HIPPA and pharmacies. CVS has paid big fines for violating patient privacy related to disposing of used Rx bottles with PHI on the bottle (Patient/Personal Health Information):
"Inappropriate disposal of PHI on medicine bottles and receipts can also lead to a HIPAA violation. In January 2009, HHS reached an agreement with CVS to pay $2.25 million to settle potential violations."
"CVS was accused of disposing medication bottles with PHI, including demographic, medical, and insurance information into open dumpsters behind the stores."
I Googled three pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens and Publix and the word "privacy." All three very clearly state on their websites that they exchange, as in receive and give, your protected health info ("PHI") with your health care providers. So, they told us, sort of.
What I want to know is, what is the verification process to ensure that a medical entity is, in fact, a current healthcare provider to a given patient with a legitimate need for the information? Is this done over the phone, or is there a closed system in which they all participate? Can anyone within that system just supply a patient name and obtain info?
Exactly. Unless it's relevant to a particular eye problem, then no, the eye doctor doesn't have a right to see all of your prescriptions, IMO. The eye doctor should have first asked permission to view your pharmacy history. And I still maintain that it is the pharmacy's responsibility to inform patients that their Rx records are viewable by any provider and ask for consent. In my case, none of that happened.
Piggybacking on your post about eye docs, I once went to an eye doctor for a refraction app't (new glasses prescription) in another state when I moved a few years ago. He gave me a basic form to fill out about any chronic conditions (diabetes, heart disease, etc) and any meds I was currently taking. No problem with that. However, I don't have any chronic conditions, I wasn't sick when I visited the eye doctor for new glasses, and I don't take meds on a regular basis. I wasn't on any medications at the time of the appointment. So the form didn't have much info.
This eye doctor was in disbelief. He actually accused me of not telling the truth because I didn't have any major medical conditions and I wasn't taking any chronic meds. It was unbelievable. I got up, said I was fortunate to be healthy, and told him I had changed my mind about getting new glasses.
It could be relevant to a particular eye problem. We have been telling you this. Many medications have ocular side effects like dry eye, and noncompliance with other medications or a need to adjust medications (like for diabetes) might cause other ocular side effects. I don’t know why this that hard to understand. It isn’t up to you to decide what might affect the eyes.
I Googled three pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens and Publix and the word "privacy." All three very clearly state on their websites that they exchange, as in receive and give, your protected health info ("PHI") with your health care providers. So, they told us, sort of.
What I want to know is, what is the verification process to ensure that a medical entity is, in fact, a current healthcare provider to a given patient with a legitimate need for the information? Is this done over the phone, or is there a closed system in which they all participate? Can anyone within that system just supply a patient name and obtain info?
You are insanely paranoid...the government can’t take any data they want. There are checks and balances. The data that gets reported to them is for overall public health and is not attached to an individual person’s identity. I have seen what gets sent across in requests and all personal identifiers are removed. They can request information but again it’s not “newtovenice came to us with x,y,z complaint and lives at this address.” As for other healthcare providers again they can only access individual patient data if they have an explicit need to. You cannot just go scrolling or go look up your neighbor or something unless you want to get fired and wind up in court potentially. Heck we are not even permitted to look at our own medical records in the system - seriously. It is all so heavily audited you really are worrying about things that just don’t happen in real life. You may not believe me but seriously almost no one is going to risk their career and the time and money invested in the education needed to get there to go snooping in a medical record.
Can the govt request the data?
Absolutely.
That'a a fact.
Do you disagree? Are you saying that the govt does NOT take health data? Why are you resorting to name calling when what I am saying is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT TRUE?
And 99.9% of the population thinks HIPAA is a document that PROTECTS their privacy.
It doesn't.
It gives consent to SHARE it.
Partly. Though it does a good job of forcing healthcare providers to jump through hoops to prevent family members, friends, potentially interested parties who aren't assigned surrogates for the patient from getting access to his/her health care information.
Only with other providers directly involved in your medical care. It doesn’t give consent to share with your friends, employer etc. I work in the medical field and you only ever see or discuss a patient’s information if you’re caring for them or have a direct need to know.
And trying to or gaining access to the records of patients a healthcare provider is not caring for ( as in a provider looking at, or trying to act on records for friends, others they are just curious about) is a dismissable offense. I''ve seen it happen a few times.
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