Is this a violation of HIPPA?

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I had a doctor's appointment yesterday at 3, she wanted me to get some labs done but it was 3:40 and I had committed to driving a friend to a dentist appointment at 4 so said that I had a dental appointment at 4 and could I come back in the AM to which she said yes. I came back in the AM did the labs and was about to leave when her nurses stopped me and said Dr wanted to know who my dentist was and without thinking I gave her the name of my dentist...10 minutes after leaving Dr calls me and says that she called said dental office and they said I didn't have an appointment yesterday and she didn't appreciate me lying to her....did the dental office break HIPPA? Is that weird the doctor called like that?

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No, not a HIPAA violation as you provided the information.

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Just leaving HIPAA out of it for a second, the actions of both the doctor/office and dentist/office were inappropriate.

Laecie said:

Is that weird the doctor called like that?

Yeah. What patients do is on them; if they have other things to do that are more important, then.... "as you wish."

It's hard to understand why a doctor would care about any of this unless this involved the prescribing of controlled substance and it appeared that you could be trying to avoid a UDS. However, even if they did have a suspicion, it would neither warrant nor legitimize calling around to check up on your story.

I wouldn't do business with either one of these providers.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

I agree with the answers you recieve but my question is "Why would you lie?" I have used this line which covers most situation" I have a commiment that I can't miss."

Hppygr8ful

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I don't believe you are disclosing all the information.

They wanted labs.  You said you had a dentist appointment, which was actually your friends appointment.

It automatically makes me think they really needed labs and you really did not want them to be drawn.

Then you lied about it being your dentist appointment, not your friends.

So at this point, its pretty obvious that you are misleading someone.

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Why in the world would your doctor call and check if you really had a dentist appointment? Seems really strange.

 

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Specializes in Occupational Health.
eldragon said:

I don't believe you are disclosing all the information.

They wanted labs.  You said you had a dentist appointment, which was actually your friends appointment.

It automatically makes me think they really needed labs and you really did not want them to be drawn.

Then you lied about it being your dentist appointment, not your friends.

So at this point, its pretty obvious that you are misleading someone.

I agree

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Specializes in ER, Occupational Health.

It was 3:40 when the OP was done with the doctor and was supposed to get labs drawn but she had a previous commitment at 4:00 and didn't have time for the labs right then.  It doesn't matter that the dentist appointment wasn't hers, she still had made a commitment to take her friend and to be on time.  It was not the doctor's business who the appointment was for, so for the sake of simplicity, she just said that she had a dentist appointment and didn't see the need to get specific.  I might have done the same thing and have in certain situations.  It was way out of line for the doctor's office to attempt to verify the veracity of the OP's statements and I totally agree with the person who said that she shouldn't have anything to do with that doctor again.  I think the OP should change doctor's immediately and write a letter to the doctor explaining why.   

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InHisImage said:

I totally agree with the person who said that she shouldn't have anything to do with that doctor again. 

That was me giving the benefit of the doubt.

But there is some doubt here. To start with, making personal appointments/commitments with a 1 hour gap is wishful thinking and/or bad planning. And yes, there is likely more to the story here. It's unlikely this provider got upset enough to check up on someone's story over a CBC or an electrolyte panel, nobody has time in their day for that.

So yes, on the one had if this all happened over something like a CBC then I would not do business with that provider any more.

If it was because the OP was supposed to leave a urine sample and found a clever way not to do that, they can leave that provider but writing a letter to chastise them for not playing games won't change anything or even make them feel bad for one second.

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I have a theory that the OP is seeing a Pain Management/addiction management doc and they wanted a UDS drawn for suspicion and the delay raised the docs suspicion and possible breached a pain management/ abuse contract.

 

The doc probably wanted to know the truth so that they could verify their suspicions or not.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
Kyrshamarks said:

I have a theory that the OP is seeing a Pain Management/addiction management doc and they wanted a UDS drawn for suspicion and the delay raised the docs suspicion and possible breached a pain management/ abuse contract.

While I firmly believe people should not comment on a nurse having a suspected drug/Alcohol problem such a theory does seend to go with the facts in evidence.

Hppygr8ful

 

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What doctor or dentist even has the time to check up on a patient to see if they are lying about the reason for  missing their appointment?   Super strange and actually, "stalkerish".   

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