Can Reporting a Theft Violate HIPAA

[The Evil Wil Wheaton]

My question involves public health law in the State of: California

My room mate is an LVN who does home care work. One of her clients is a child with an incapacitating genetic disorder. The child’s 18-year-old sister lives in the home with the disabled child and their two parents. My room mate has had total hip replacement surgery and is on some pretty heavy-duty painkillers (high-dose oxy, for those of you who are curious). Anyway, last week she went to work and the douchebag sister stole her entire bottle of Norco. Actually, she stole 41 tablets and left my roomie three, optimistically thinking that roomie wouldn’t notice. I told roomie to file a police report ASAP. Roomie freaked and basically said “absolutely not.” She’s actually terrified that she will lose her job with the agency if she does the right thing and reports the theft. She’s completely convinced that it would violate HIPAA, and that she will be fined a bazillion dollars and spend the next ten years being somebody’s bitch if she reports the theft. This is complete nonsense, isn’t it? The wiki page on HIPAA gives links to several applicable DOJ documents on the subject, and from what I’ve read this wouldn’t be a HIPAA violation by even the remotest stretch of the imagination. But she claims that another employee of her agency got fired for doing exactly what I suggested. Please tell me that I’m right here—I can’t accept that she could get fired for not letting some junkie steal her narcotics.

[cbg]

I can't even remotely imagine how reporting the theft would violate HIPAA. It's her OWN health information that's involved here, and she's allow to give that to anyone she wants to. It's OTHER PEOPLE who can't release her health information without violating HIPAA>

[Dogmatique]

My question involves public health law in the State of: California

My room mate is an LVN who does home care work. One of her clients is a child with an incapacitating genetic disorder. The child’s 18-year-old sister lives in the home with the disabled child and their two parents. My room mate has had total hip replacement surgery and is on some pretty heavy-duty painkillers (high-dose oxy, for those of you who are curious). Anyway, last week she went to work and the douchebag sister stole her entire bottle of Norco. Actually, she stole 41 tablets and left my roomie three, optimistically thinking that roomie wouldn’t notice. I told roomie to file a police report ASAP. Roomie freaked and basically said “absolutely not.” She’s actually terrified that she will lose her job with the agency if she does the right thing and reports the theft. She’s completely convinced that it would violate HIPAA, and that she will be fined a bazillion dollars and spend the next ten years being somebody’s bitch if she reports the theft. This is complete nonsense, isn’t it? The wiki page on HIPAA gives links to several applicable DOJ documents on the subject, and from what I’ve read this wouldn’t be a HIPAA violation by even the remotest stretch of the imagination. But she claims that another employee of her agency got fired for doing exactly what I suggested. Please tell me that I’m right here—I can’t accept that she could get fired for not letting some junkie steal her narcotics.

She's an LVN and she doesn't understand the basic precepts of HIPAA? Are you absolutely sure you're getting the full story here?

Even IF she committed a HIPAA violation, she should know the penalties and what they do or don't involve.

[The Evil Wil Wheaton]

Well, sometimes roomie isn’t the sharpest hoe in the tool shed. One time a doctor told her to administer a 100-milliliter IV over four hours and she couldn’t figure out the infusion rate. The little Guatemalan CNA had to tell her “pssst—25 milliliters per hour” after the doctor was out of earshot. Apparently her agency tries to instill the fear of God into all its employees at their monthly inservice by showing them horror films outlining the attendant penalties that accompany HIPAA violations. I think she might also just be making excuses. She’s one of those people who peer-bond comfortably with people who use controlled substances, so maybe she just doesn’t want any sort of confrontational situation. She tried to rationalize the whole thing just this morning by saying “well, it’s not her fault—it’s the fault of her doctors who got her hooked on oxy in the first place.”

[Dogmatique]

I'll be brutally honest - it sounds more like she's been taking too many of her OWN meds and needs what she thinks is a viable story. For one thing, she shouldn't be carrying that large a quantity to work - there's no reason for it.

(Because trust me, she's not taking 40 of them every day!)

I know this won't be a popular point of view, but that's was actually the very first thing to cross my mind when I read your initial post. I think you're right to be wary, though.

[The Evil Wil Wheaton]

No, they were stolen. There’s no question about it. You have to practically force her to take opiates. She’ll tough it out as long as she possibly can with ibuprofen before she will break down and embrace the dark side. Her doctors have practically had to demand that she take oxy. When her sister died we were cleaning out her house and found about 100 fresh Vicodin in the medicine cabinet. She looked at the bottle just long enough to read the label, and then simply handed them to me and said “here—you want these?” If she were a closet junkie, she would have clutched those pills as if they were the One Ring. No, she genuinely seems to be primarily afraid of retaliation from the client’s family and/or her employer. Seems pretty ridiculous to me. She was in agony all weekend until she could get the prescription refilled on Monday.

I asked her why she had an entire goddamned bottle of oxy on her person, and she said that she was in a hurry that morning and had just grabbed them and shoved them in her purse.

[Dogmatique]

There cannot be any retaliation, because she's doing nothing wrong. She is not illegally/unethically sharing medical information about her charge to any unauthorized parties, correct? There is no wrongdoing here.

On the other hand, if she doesn't report the theft and it happens again? That makes HER look bad

(as a sidenote, it's a common myth that abusers will cling on to any and all narcotic meds. Many have their favorite, and that's all they'll take)

[The Evil Wil Wheaton]

On the other hand, if she doesn't report the theft and it happens again? That makes HER look bad

Yeah, no argument here. It's actually the third time this has happened. I asked roomie "what if the dumb bitch takes all of them and ODs? She just graduated from freakin' high school this week, and now her death is on your hands because you were too afraid of losing your precious little job (which isn't going to happen anyway) to call the cops."

[Dogmatique]

When was the hip replacement surgery?

There is a reason why I'm asking the question.

[The Evil Wil Wheaton]

I'll try to get back to you by tomorrow afternoon with that.