Study finds online reviews can lead to HIPAA violations
Ratings sites such as Yelp and HealthGrades.com are fundamentally changing the relationship between healthcare providers and patients. Negative reviews can lead to online disagreements.
Patients who are upset or unsatisfied can engage in arguments with providers including doctors, dentists, massage therapists and chiropractors.
Such discussions can lead to healthcare providers violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), according to an in-depth study by ProPublica. HIPAA forbids healthcare providers from disclosing patient health information without permission.
Co-published with the Washington Post, the story examined more than 1.7 million public reviews, searching by keyword to identify those specifically mentioning HIPAA-related concerns. Such cases often involved doctor-patient exchanges led to sharing of protected medical information.
“I looked very closely at your radiographs and it was obvious that you have cavities and gum disease that your other dentist has overlooked,” wrote California dentist. “You can live in a world of denial and simply believe what you want to hear from your other dentist or make an educated and informed decision.”
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which enforces HIPAA, couldn’t say how many complaints it has received about sharing information via online review platforms. ProPublica has previously reported about the agency’s historic inability to analyze its complaints and identify repeat HIPAA violators.
Doctors and providers are allowed to generally discuss care when responding to online reviews. But discussing specific cases often violates HIPAA protections.
“If the complaint is about poor patient care, they can come back and say, ‘I provide all of my patients with good patient care’ and ‘I’ve been reviewed in other contexts and have good reviews,’” said Deven McGraw, deputy director of health information privacy for OCR. But they can’t “take those accusations on individually by the patient.”
In a general sense, online reviews may have the potential to supplement information collected through more traditional patient survey techniques, including the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey.
Nicholas joined TriMed in 2016 as the managing editor of the Chicago office. After receiving his master’s from Roosevelt University, he worked in various writing/editing roles for magazines ranging in topic from billiards to metallurgy. Currently on Chicago’s north side, Nicholas keeps busy by running, reading and talking to his two cats.