Community› The Bump Month Clubs› December 2014 Moms
December 2014 Moms
New Discussion

Vent - OB Bill not sealed

CandEChicagoCandEChicago member
in December 2014 Moms
Minor vent. Received my OB bill in the US mail...the envelope was not sealed. No sticky, no evidence of it popping off due to poor glue. DH verified it. OB's front desk staff verified it.

Rather annoyed since anyone processing the mail (i.e. mail carrier) could have read what tests I had performed. This is the first bill so it includes a lot of the practices standard battery of tests:

- pregnancy test
- herpes
- hiv
- cystic fibrosis
- thyroid
- trans vag ultrasound, etc.

Asked that the office let the billing group know of the error. But definitely annoyed that this happened and want to talk to the practice manager since I am not sure if this is a potential HIPPA issue.

Thanks for listening to me vent.


Test
Report Reply to Post

Re: Vent - OB Bill not sealed

  • Cheekers2010Cheekers2010 member
    Ack. That sucks.
    Lilypie - (vGZN)

    Lilypie First Birthday tickers
    BFP2: 10/27/13(edd 7/10/14) "Speck" ~ M/C 12/5/13
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • freakyfastfreakyfast member
    I would definitely be annoyed by this.  They need to make sure sensitive information like that is sealed, in my op 



      


    Report Reply
  • RayRay007RayRay007 member
    ashtonkitty1 said:
    Anna930 said:
    It probably could be a HIPAA issue and good to give them a heads up.  In my experience working as a pharmacist what medical Boards and enforcers of HIPAA are most concerned with is intentional releases... selling info for money or for other reasons.  While releases due to neglect or lack of carefulness are serious (and certainly serious to the person whose info is leaked) it is extremely common.

    Sorry this happened to you, I hope the billing department takes it seriously enough to do a quality control check on their machine/workers sending out bills
    Agree with all of this.  It does stink for you, but the office didn't do it intentionally (I guess) so there's no proven breach.  If there is a proven breach, they are required to report themselves though.  It is very serious. 

    I had to report one of our volunteers once for a breach to the Dept of HHS.  Pretty scary.

    Edit:  Used the word "though" way too many times.
    I'm no expert on American HIPAA, but I do work in the field in Canada and it could be a breach whether it was intentional or not. There is probably an explicit duty to take reasonable steps to ensure the protection of the information. So carelessness could breach that. In any event, I'm sure this happens and would not be seen as an egregious breach or anything. It still sucks for OP. 

    In my province there is a cervical cancer prevention program, and any woman who has a pap test done, the results are given not only to the dr. but also this program who mails the woman the results (on top of the dr. giving the results). The intention is to avoid those cases where the dr. forgets to give results in a timely manner. This has been held to be a reasonable invasion of privacy - ie. the benefit to the individual outweighs the risk of invasion of privacy. So every time I get a pap, a purple envelope comes in the mail with the name of the program clear as day on the front, so the mail man knows I had a pap. Great. 

    image

    bfp#4 3/19/2014 edd 12/1/2014 please let this be the one!

    beta @ 5w0d = 12,026! u/s 4/22/14 @ 8w1d it's twins!

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

    Report Reply
  • CandEChicagoCandEChicago member
    Wanted to provide an update. Practice manager and billing manager checked it out and we're profusely apologetic and appreciated that I brought it to their attention so that (a) maybe it impacted the entire batch and others have not yet reported it and (b) so that they can add some extra precaution so that this does not happen again.

    I told them I wanted to talk to DH about this tonight to see what considerations I hadn't thought about. They are also going to have the practice owner contact me. Looks like they are taking it seriously.


    Test
    Report Reply
  • BankerBSNBankerBSN member
    I am glad they are taking it seriously.

    image

    Report Reply
  • rshamosrshamos member
    Glad they are taking it seriously. HIPAA is nothing to joke about and can lead to serious fines for the office, whether intentional or not.
    Lilypie First Birthday tickers
    Report Reply
  • nashambernashamber member
    Yikes! That would certainly piss me off. I am glad they are taking it seriously. Good job for bringing it to their attention. Most patients would bitch about it amongst their friend/family and not mention it to the responsible party.

    image

     
     

     
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"