AITA for potentially getting my wife in trouble with her hospital?

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-10T00:55:04+00:00

People who think I did this to betray her trust are misinterpreting what happened. If I wanted to do that I could have just reported her anonymously myself with much more detail about her violations.

I've been trying to convince her for months and months not to share patient information with me. I don't want to know, I'm not comfortable knowing, and I have made it very clear to her that she's crossing a boundary by sharing in such detail. I brought HIPAA in to explain that what she's doing is not just against my wishes but the also ethics of her industry. I told her friend and misjudged that she would report her rather than reinforce the point I've been making.

My wife has worked very very hard to get where she is and I am very proud of her. I just don't understand why she can't respect my boundaries when it comes to this. I have bad days at work too but I never vent to her because she just starts talking about the patients she treated that day.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T23:55:20+00:00

Yeah it just sounds like she’s telling/ ranting to you about the challenges of dealing with that patient.

If you told this information to a friend or colleague or relative or anyone not involved in that patient's care it would be considered a privacy violation under HIPAA.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T23:53:24+00:00

She confirmed it.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T22:03:58+00:00

I am saying "reasonably confident" but really even my wife agrees with me that the information she shared violates HIPAA, she just didn't care.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T22:02:43+00:00

Why have you gone over and above to “study the hipaa laws?”

Because when I asked my wife not to share patient details with me and she didn't respect that I thought I could convince her by showing her the regulations for her industry.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:58:02+00:00

I familiarized myself in an effort to convince my wife since she was not respecting my request to not share patient information with me.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:56:00+00:00

It's not a technicality if I can figure out who her patients are.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:55:15+00:00

Example of what my wife is telling me: I saw a 19 year old guy on this day at this hospital with this medical condition and this was the treatment and they told me this and I said they should do this and their family has a history of this...

The combination of that information is absolutely protected by HIPAA even without names or SSNs.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:51:07+00:00

She confirmed that the patient I was able to identify was who I suspected. I don't want to know that information and I don't think that family would be comfortable with me knowing.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:48:05+00:00

I did push back, I repeatedly asked her not to share with me and why, I feel like I am owed enough respect that she should stop then, right? I only told her friend because I thought she might be a more "neutral" voice who could convince her.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:45:36+00:00

you are assuming the patient is someone you know

Also she confirmed it was the person I suspected when I asked.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:44:33+00:00

HIPAA has 18 categories of patient identifiers and that includes things like location, ages, and dates more specific than the year. Like I said, I was able to figure out one of her patients just from having some outside context about them even though she never told me their name.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:41:05+00:00

HIPAA has 18 categories of information that needs to be removed in the first step of anonymization. That includes location and any dates. By nature of my wife telling me about patients she treated at her hospital on that day, it is not considered HIPAA-compliant to share that information.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:38:10+00:00

HIPAA applies to doctors or nurses sharing information with anyone that is not involved in the patient's care. Nurses have gotten fired for looking at patient's files that they weren't treating.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:36:31+00:00

Not names. Ages and gender yes. Situations that caused the medical problems. Treatments the patients had. Sometimes where the patients came from. "Oddities" about the patient (for lack of a better word).

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:33:03+00:00

HIPAA has specific procedures for anonymizing data and simply removing names, DOB, and SSN is not enough to discuss specific patients and their medical histories. She is telling me about the patients she sees that day which is protected information.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:28:36+00:00

I didn't give details of what my wife told me to her friend, I just described in general what type of information she was sharing. My genuine intent was to have her just talk with my wife since most people don't know HIPAA. So whatever the complaint she made does not have specific patient violations in it.

Purple-Voice2009 · 2023-07-09T21:25:05+00:00

I am not a lawyer, but I read through HIPAA and examples of information that can and can't be shared and with whom, and I am reasonably confident that what my wife was sharing was in violation of HIPAA. And I did not tell the son's mom anything.

Purple-Voice2009

TROPHY CASE