Is "Crazy", and "psycho" entered by a drugstore clerk "medical information" - or more technically, "protected health information"? I don't think so. It is an opinion only, and certainly not a medical diagnosis, as the article itself even states. Also, HIPAA obviously does not prohibit health care personnel such as the Walgreens pharmacists working different shifts from sharing at least some "protected health information" with each other. Even though the informatoin is linked throughout the Walgreens nationwide database, it is unlikely that anyone who works at Walgreens spends time reading comments made about customers other than the one they are waiting on at any particular time.
There may be some kind of lawsuit here, but I don't see a HIPAA violation.
"There may be some kind of lawsuit here, but I don't see a HIPAA violation."
There can be no lawsuit if there is no HIPAA violation, right? I mean, what else can she sue them for?
I didn't say that it was.
In the article, she asserted that the pharmacy staff would call out her name for her order and also what the order consisted of, in a public manner. I am familar with HIPAA- that might be an infraction. The 'crazy' note on the order, clearly and obviously, is not.
My point was that the lawsuit and the resultant new story compromise her medical privacy far more than anything that she is complaining about, and I made that comment in response to another poster who had mentioned HIPAA ramifications.
“There may be some kind of lawsuit here, but I don’t see a HIPAA violation.”
_____________________
It is both a HIPAA violation and libel.