Forum Overview :: Patch Adams
 
HIPAA - honestly, WHAT THE FUCK by Fullofkittens 04/19/2005, 8:40pm PDT
Because of adjustments to the HIPAA guidelines, my wife (who some people here know has a blood disorder which is both fairly serious and has no visible symptoms) is basically unable to find out the results of her own blood tests.

The last time (2 weeks ago) she went to the hospital for a routine check, she was able to trick the nurses into giving her her platelet count (which is the critical number we need). Today, she ran into nurses that actually understand how the rules work, and as a result she was actually unable to find out the results of her blood tests... which is pretty interesting, because she was critically (like, mortal danger) low last Wednesday and was in the hospital for two days in an attempt to bring the counts back up.

The only way they can release the information is by mailing it to your residence, which takes a week. HER COUNTS ARE DANGEROUSLY LOW, BITCHES. WE ARE TRYING TO FIND OUT IF SHE NEEDS EMERGENCY MEDICAL TREATMENT.

This is allegedly to protect her privacy... which makes perfect sense, since the nurses know what her counts are but aren't allowed to tell her. Did the definition of privacy get inverted at some point? Is this because of the new Pope?

The documentation on this stuff is insanely long-winded but I'm starting to get a vibe off it: at first I thought it was a Clean Air Act-type deal where the "right to privacy" wording was being used to benefit special interests (HMOs) and force us to go to the hospital twice instead of once. Now, I'm starting to realize that the legislation is actually meanspirited - the HIPAA guidelines were originally intended (by their Clinton-era progenitors) to protect patients, but since those... those liberals went and fucked it all up by not allowing the post-2000 government to give us barcodes:

hipaaplus.org wrote:

However, the National Individual Identifier ran afoul of protests from civil libertarians and individuals concerned about big brother having the ability to identify, track and gain information about anyone in the country via a single identification number.


...so the response is to fuck patients over, making the whole privacy issue such a pain in the ass that I'm guessing the whole point of it is to cause us to want the National Individual Identifier. Except, in some patients' cases, it's less a headache than a potentially life-threatening dilemma... if you can't get your test results and your doctor can't get them over the phone... how are you supposed to know if you're all right or not?
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HIPAA - honestly, WHAT THE FUCK by Fullofkittens 04/19/2005, 8:40pm PDT NEW
    I worked on a contact management system for a doctor's office by Entropy Stew 04/20/2005, 3:39am PDT NEW
        Re: I worked on a contact management system for a doctor's office by Creexul :( 04/20/2005, 12:05pm PDT NEW
            Re: I worked on a contact management system for a doctor's office by Entropy Stew 04/20/2005, 1:21pm PDT NEW
                YOU SICK FUCKING MONSTER by Creexul :( 04/20/2005, 1:46pm PDT NEW
    Don't you also fear fictional characters? by Weyoun Voidbringer 04/20/2005, 5:47am PDT NEW
        Well, I'm sold. Please to be injecting RFID tags into my retinas now NT by Entropy Stew 04/20/2005, 10:32am PDT NEW
            I dunno why you would want to, but ok NT by Weyoun Voidbringer 04/20/2005, 12:07pm PDT NEW
            Go back to Slashdot! by Ray of Light 04/20/2005, 1:22pm PDT NEW
                Don't look at the trap when it opens. by Creexul :( 04/20/2005, 1:45pm PDT NEW
 
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