On 2005-10-16 19:21:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Hmmmm... if you know Blaire then you must have been a student or worked there between '00 and '01? Does HIPPA really apply to HLA since they don't fall under JCHAO?"
Yes, of course HIPAA applies to HLA. They offer mental health treatment for money and some of it is paid by insurance.
I recently saw a news article that HLA was approved by JCHAO in the past month or so.
The bottom line is that if this person worked at the school and disclosed information about a client (it's against federal law to even say that person was ever a resident there) they're going to be in some trouble. More than likely they'll lose their job, get a stiff fine for violating federal confidentiality law and open an avenue for a lawsuit where HLA and this person are jointly and severally liable for damages.
Yeah, "guessing" a person's first name and length of stay is not a crime or tort. However, when ISP records are subpoenaed and all of this person's emails and postings are examined, it may bring to light quite a bit of information like maybe they told someone in a PM or an email about the identity of the client. Whether or not it was disclosed in an open forum means nothing. Even if it was revealed in private, there are going to be consequences for this person and HLA.
We'll just have to wait and see...