Are our doctors allowed access to our personal pharmacy records? My neurologist recently accessed mine, without my knowledge, and saw that I had been prescribed a pain medication from an orthopedic doctor for an unrelated condition. She now states that I have violated a contract I signed with her, which states that I would not seek pain medication from any doctor, besides her, for my migraines. This is crazy!
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Q: Personal patient information... just what IS personal?
Answers (2)
4/12/09 2:26pm
Sandi,
I'm really not sure about this.
We do have a new contributor who is going to be answering some of these questions via her SharePosts. I'll refer this along and let you know when we have an answer.
Teri
5/21/09 11:06am
Hi Sandi -
Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which generally protects your health information for disclosure without your consent, there are a number of exceptions. One of them is for two health care providers who currently treat or have a relationship with you. These two providers are entitled to exchange information for treatment purposes, without getting a specific consent from you. You can read more about the operation of the Privacy Rule in this type of situation at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Health Information Privacy. In your situation, knowing what other medications you are taking might be quite relevant to your doctor's treatment of you, and the pharmacy would be within their rights to disclose that information to her.
Best of luck,
Megan
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Thanks, Megan. I really appreciate you researching this.
Best Regards,
Sandi