It is no secret that social media has brought many changes. We are a connected nation and everybody seems to have an opinion on everything. If you haven’t been in a coma for the last ten years, you are probably familiar with Yelp and similar sites that permit someone to comment on their experiences with businesses or service providers. If you have ever run a business or known someone who has, you are probably familiar with the complaint that there are some posters who derive a sense of satisfaction from trashing a business. It seems that there is always someone who is unhappy with their experience. Medical practices are no different but, when doctors react to unfavorable reviews, trouble can ensue.
In 1996 Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly referred to as HIPAA. In addition to containing provisions to make health insurance more portable, the act made clear that a patient’s health information was private, could be used only for certain purposes and could not be made public. It is a serious violation of federal law to make personal health care information public. In their rush to protect their reputations against social media criticism, some doctors have either forgotten that patient information must be kept confidential or have remembered that fact and decided to go public anyway.
Here is a link to a story describing some of the unfortunate instances that have occurred when doctors went nuclear in responding to on line reviews and made public that which is clearly private. Doctors can get in a lot of trouble for violating HIPAA. The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights is the entity charged with investigating and enforcing allegations of HIPAA privacy violations. There can be fines for violating HIPAA and the amount of the fine depends upon the degree of fault on the part of the health care provider. Here is a link. The fine can be as much as $50,000.00 for an intentional violation such as occurs when a doctor goes on social media to attack a patient for a negative comment and intentionally discloses confidential patient information.
Many commentators say that doctors need to learn what restaurants and other service providers have learned: Get over it. There will always be some negative reviews. Let the positive reviews speak for you. If you feel you must respond, do so generally by stating that you strive to give good care to all patients and you are sorry if their experience was not up to your standards. Urge them to contact you privately to discuss. Whatever you do, do not argue with the patient on line and disclose confidential health information.
For you as a patient, if you feel that you have been the victim of a HIPAA violation by a health care provider, contact the Office for Civil Rights and tell them your story. You have a right to be protected and giving a doctor or a hospital a negative review on social media does not forfeit or waive that right.
