The Washington Post has an interesting story about how some doctors and health care professionals are responding to negative reviews online. In essence, it sounds as though some members of the health care profession are violating the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by providing very personal details about a patient's care in response to negative online reviews.
While some people believe that HIPAA provides strong privacy protections to patients there is no private right of action allowed for an individual to sue for a violation of the act. One option is to file a HIPAA privacy complaint with the federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Another option is review your state's medical privacy laws to determine if there is a state based privacy claim.
In 2014, the Indiana Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a $1.44 million dollar claim against Walgreens for a state based medical information privacy action. In that case, a Walgreens employee violated a patient's privacy by viewing a customer's prescription records and disclosing that information to a third-party.
The bottom line is that doctor practices, hospitals, and other health care providers should have the proper policies in place and be trained about legal social media issues that may affect their practices. Just because a social media "expert"/"guru"/"ninja", etc.... may advocate responding to a negative online review you may want to get a second opinion from a lawyer who understands the legal, privacy, and reputation ramifications of doing so.
Copyright 2016 by Bradley S. Shear, Esq. All rights reserved.
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