Right. And a perfect example of why so many people have an incorrect understanding of HIPAA -- because people like that go around telling everyone their bogus interpretation of HIPAA as if they are experts.
I'm an employment lawyer, but I took some ERISA CLE's anyway because I bumped into it all the time, and I was very glad. What gets tricky is when you start considering the ADA...but that's outside the scope of a HIPAA discussion.