Recycled Medical Records Used As Scrap Paper At Elementary School

Parents with students at Hale Elementary School in Minneapolis have found something interesting on the back of their children's pictures hanging on the fridge, detailed medical information. From the article: "Jennifer Kane was tidying her dining room when she found the drawing by her daughter, Keely, who goes to Hale Elementary School. On the back of the paper was the name, birth date and detailed medical information for a 24-year-old St. Paul woman named Paula White. 'The more I read it, the more alarmed I became about the amount of information I had about this person,' said Kane." The security lapse has been blamed on a paralegal donating the paper to the school.

Comments

First medical record post!

[GameboyRMH]

Look in the source code of this comment for detailed medical records!

HIPAA fail

[akeeneye]

There's got to be a massive fine coming for this.

Re:HIPAA fail

[Alan Shutko]

Maybe not... The law firm is probably not a HIPAA covered agency. If the law firm got the records because their client was a covered entity, they might be in trouble under HIPAA. If they got the records because they were suing a covered entity, they probably aren't in trouble under HIPAA. They'd still be in trouble for disclosing private information, though.

Here's a writeup.

Re:HIPAA fail

[Talderas]

There is no maybe about it. If the law firm is representing a covered entity then they have to comply with HIPAA regulations. This has been the case since February 17, 2010.

You are also right on if the lawyer was not representing a covered entity. If they had acquired the information while representing a client bringing a lawsuit against a hospital then they aren't covered by HIPAA.

Re:HIPAA fail

[Talderas]

You aren't going to be able to sue a medical center and get all medical records for all patients. It's unlikely that you would get any records other than your own health records.

What happened here is a pretty clear chain of events as to how it happened.

Here's the facts. Many (exact number unknown) pieces of scrap paper contained medical information. All that information originated from Sawicki and Phelps. Ms. White had hired them after she was in a car accident.

The last fact heavily suggests that these attorneys are personal injury attorneys and possibly medical malpractice attorneys. They are going to need to have the medical records for their clients in order to build a case. This leads me to believe that all medical information disclosed by them were all clients of the law firm seeking restitution for injuries sustained.

It's really not even a loophole at all. It's a possible consequence of giving your medical information to a group not covered by HIPAA.

The only difference between this and giving your medical information to the guy that gets your Starbucks in the morning is that at least lawyers have the bar association and other organizations which may keep them in line regarding private information. That and a lawyer without clients because he keeps giving out their private info would be a lawyer without clients.

Re:HIPAA uber-violation

[MyLongNickName]

I am sure the school carefully checked over the scrap paper being donated. Some teacher probably got a box full of paper, took a quick look and was just thankful her funding-starved school got some paper. Otherwise, she'd have had to buy some out of her own paycheck like many teachers do...

Re:I can see it now...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Mommy, whats 'anal hemorrhoids'?"

A much better condition than 'oral hemorrhoids'.