Is this really what HIPAA means?

April 21, 2024 11:16 AM

Kid Blah, age 21, is doing a semester abroad & requires a doctor appt. when he returns home. I have just been told by the doc's office that I can't schedule the appointment because of HIPAA. Is this for real??

He asked me to make the appointment for him since he's living in a time zone that isn't super conducive to this & doesn't have a ton of phone access. The sum total of what I want to do is make the appointment, and if asked, yes, *I* can tell *them* why Kid wants to see the doc. I will require hearing zero health information from them.

At the same time, I have also made a dentist appointment for when he returns, and an optometrist appointment. Neither of those offices put up any fuss when I did this.

Possibly important: I did just try to do this today (Sunday), because the clinic is open...but I know they're only open for limited services so maybe the person who answered the phone is just an idiot?

posted by BlahLaLa to Health & Fitness (19 answers total)

There could be a health data related reason why he can’t make an appointment with them right now. I’d try again tomorrow when someone else may answer.
posted by supercres at 11:36 AM on April 21

If he is a part of a major medical system the online portal may allow him to schedule the appointment online at any time.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:37 AM on April 21 [10 favorites]

Yeah, that seems like you got someone who's got an unclear understanding of HIPAA, and I'd try again later.
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:46 AM on April 21 [3 favorites]

It's possible there's a medical reason why he can't be seen or can't be seen at a particular time/day etc. and they can't reveal that? It's hard to imagine what that could be if he's living far away (i.e. this doctor probably wouldn't be the one who knows about it) and without knowing what kind of doctor/specialist it is. But I'm thinking -- not likely to be an issue assuming your son is cisgender -- but some kinds of appointments I've had have to be at a specific point in one's cycle, or maybe some kinds of tests can't be done if something else was done recently (e.g. I once had an x-ray a few days after a Ct-scan done with dye and they had to scrap the whole x-ray).

It also may be private information that your son is a patient at that office and making an appointment would confirm they are a patient, so they can't do that.

Anyway, if they've confirmed or implied your son is a patient there then 90% likely it's just a mis-informed receptionist, but it could also be some medical reason that they can't reveal because HIPAA.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:48 AM on April 21 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I will definitely try again tomorrow.

I know with 100% certainty there is no medical reason why he wouldn't be able to make an appointment without a discussion of health issues. This is literally just a "Okay, Thursday at 3pm" type of conversation.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:22 PM on April 21

It's not unusual for medical places to have this as a blanket policy.

From Pediatric & Young Adult Medicine:
The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws were written, among other reasons, to protect individuals’ privacy. All medical practices are required to uphold patient privacy by following HIPAA guidelines. This includes scheduling appointments.

A conversation about this topic on AllNurses.com includes:
You could be anybody on the phone. The mother of a creepy ex-boyfriend trying to stir up trouble. I ran into the same thing when my kids turned of age. People just trying to do their jobs and not get into trouble.

Violating HIPAA has serious consequences for the employees, I can't blame them for being extra cautious since their jobs could be at stake.
posted by Meldanthral at 12:44 PM on April 21 [14 favorites]

If your son is an existing patient of this clinic, the booking is with his regular provider, and his permission to communicate with you is recorded in his file, then the person answering the phone earlier may be adhering to a specific Sunday policy meant to deter others' fishing expeditions. (A call to set this appointment either confirms he's a patient there or requires asking possibly-sensitive questions to create a patient record.) Your call tomorrow should go well.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:45 PM on April 21 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If needed, you could have a male friend or relative make the appointment and pretend to be your son. That's what I would do.
posted by happy_cat at 12:55 PM on April 21 [9 favorites]

It’s possible they feel that allowing you to make an appointment would confirm that he is a patient. Part of HIPPA is neither confirming nor denying that someone is a patient (for example, someone is a patient at Planned Parenthood could imply information about care they are receiving.)
posted by raccoon409 at 2:08 PM on April 21 [7 favorites]

Just try again and say you are him. This is how I had to deal with student loans that had my parents name on them, worked a charm regardless of gender.
posted by so fucking future at 2:16 PM on April 21 [3 favorites]

I mean, as someone who has to occasionally deal withFERPA on the side of things that has to say "I can't give you that information" to parents of adults about your son's age: yeah this can be a pain in the butt for you and your son, but the stakes are, generally speaking, much higher for the folks these privacy laws are protecting. Please don't play tricks to skirt the system and get the folks at the Drs. office used to looking the other way, these laws only protect folk if they're always followed.

Look at it this way, you now know your son's Dr. takes his privacy seriously, and that's a good thing.
posted by Gygesringtone at 3:34 PM on April 21 [12 favorites]

The legal angle has been covered. Another angle is that if it is a time sensitive appointment he can now learn valuable life skills by figuring out how to make it across time zones and despite phone concerns. If it isn’t time sensitive then it‘ll keep until he’s back and able to take care of it more easily.
posted by koahiatamadl at 4:11 PM on April 21 [10 favorites]

I'm a doctor. There should be a way for your kid to designate you/whoever as an "informed other" on their patient portal. That will allow you to communicate with staff and clinicians, if needed. Staff shouldn't be allowing you to make appointments for him, if you're not the designated "informed other."
posted by basalganglia at 8:19 PM on April 21 [9 favorites]

>but I know they're only open for limited services so maybe the person who answered the phone is just an idiot?
They are probably not an idiot. Please do not treat them that way. At worst they are misunderstanding the situation. Most likely they are dutifully following a policy. You didn't mention telling this person to look at the paperwork your son filed that would give them permission to talk to you. Has your son in fact filed that paperwork? If not, I wouldn't expect them to break the rules for you.

Disclosure: (I am biased, my job has rules that are annoying but exist to prevent bad things that have happened before from happening again, and I dislike being called an idiot for enforcing them, even if they inconvenience people.)
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 8:45 PM on April 21 [15 favorites]

HIPAA doesn’t prevent prevent this. The office has an erroneous policy.
posted by MattD at 9:22 PM on April 21

I think basalganglia is onto it. You probably aren’t in their system as an authorized contact who can act/speak for your son.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:46 AM on April 22

When our daughter turned 21, she had to fill out a form for her doctor's office allowing us to be authoreized for stuff like that, so going with basalganglia's answer.
posted by briank at 7:56 AM on April 22 [2 favorites]

This is maybe not to-the-letter HIPAA but that is by far the easiest thing to say to people on the phone who are violating a policy that exists for really really good reasons. This is, among other things, about an adult human's right to privacy and agency and consent, and to protect them as well as possible from medical care being an abuse vector. It is MEANT to be an inconvenience, because you might not have good intentions.

The way around this is for him to follow the normal procedures to deputize you, so to speak, to do this. If he didn't do that... I mean, I would believe you if you said he just didn't know or didn't follow through on doing it, but my gut check should NOT be the gatekeeper here. If he didn't give you permission, that could have been a choice he made. And I haven't had to do this recently, but I would hope you would have to provide some kind of semi-secret ID to confirm you - the voice on the phone - are the informed other you say you are. Again: inconvenient, but appropriate.

At the lowest level, this is a way to reduce no-shows or appointments that claim to be for one purpose but end up being another more time-consuming one on arrival, and I would totally understand if that was the only reason it was in place, and again I'd bear no grudge if they claimed it was HIPAA because a bunch of people seem to have more faith in the power of "HIPPA" than the constitution or elections, and are less likely to freak out than if they're told they have a firm "not your business anymore unless he says so" policy.

I know you're just trying to live your life and you're not the reason for these policies, but believe me that there are some shitty shitty people out there who can and do and want to abuse medical services to their own ends, and when you call the doctor's office your caller ID doesn't say you're not one of them. This isn't even a wildly effective set of policies to prevent harm, because they need a good bit of leeway left for people to get the assistance they need, but it is SOMETHING that is better than nothing.

International phone calls aren't that hard to make, if he can't do it via his portal.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:05 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]

just call and say you are him and make the appointment.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:08 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]