HIPPA Violation? Request to Tag Medical Equipment to Carry Aboard Flights
An amazing situation after flying 26 years and never having a problem with my medical equipment on NW, Delta or Continental, I was recently singled out and harassed when attempting to carry on a legitimate piece of medical equipment on a Delta flight.
The lead flight attendant questioned the extra bag, despite adequate on-board storage space on the flight. When I explained it was a piece of medical equipment, she strongly recommended that the unit/carrying case be tagged as medical equipment so as not to be hassled on future flights.
When traveling with colleagues, I don't want to have questions about my personal medical situation and feel that HIPAA allows for privacy around the matter. For a lead flight attendant to suggest this, in my opinion is a violation of medical privacy laws such as HIPAA.
In fairness, I asked for clarification she noted that it was not airline policy or a requirement, but strongly encouraged a tag to avoid future 'confrontation' on Delta. I wonder if Delta knows flight attendants, especially senior, lead attendants, are suggesting things such as this. I believe Delta and/or their staff could be sued if they continue this behavior.
This happened after a counter supervisor in Denver refused to check my medical equipment w/o paying a $25.00 fee for a second bag (Pre-merger approval). I understand that Delta does in fact have a policy for exempting bags for issues such as medical equipment but said they had no way of overriding the payment prompt in their computer. Her response was, "To fly, you pay or you carry it on". I wound up carrying the device but had to check it plane side because of it being too large to fit into the overhead in a regional aircraft.
I am contacting Health and Human Services to identify what our rights are relative to medical privacy when flying on airlines. One has to wonder how Delta staff is trained when they either don't know their own policies or fail to realize how their actions may be a violation of privacy/individually protected rights by the government.
Last edited by RSSrsvp; Mar 7, 09 at 3:03 pm.
Reason: Removed the FA's name.
I strongly doubt that an airline would be covered under HIPAA (not HIPPA). HIPAA applies to health care providers and people/organizations who have access to your medical/medical payment records. It sounds to me like the FA was trying to be helpful, not trying to harass you or invade your privacy. You chose to carry on the equipment and you chose to disclose the fact that it was medical equipment to the FA; nothing wrong with the FA making a suggestion.
I don't think the airline is a "covered entity" as defined by HIPAA. Second, I don't think tagging a bag as medical equipment necessarily violates PHI so long as no identifying information is on the tag.
Well.. while it may be some kind of invasion of privacy to point out a medical condition... the Airlines are not included under Hipaa laws in such a matter.
"The Privacy Rule, as well as all the Administrative Simplification rules, apply to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and to any health care provider who transmits health information in electronic form in connection with transactions for which the Secretary of HHS has adopted standards under HIPAA"
Unless of corse, you work for the airline.. and your HR department made the suggestion.
I would doubt you have any recourse and in my opinion you shouldn't. I agree with the flight attendant that your medical baggage should be marked as such and whatever reasonable questions the airline has about your luggage are proper.
Short of the flight attendant getting on the PA and making an announcement about your situation you shouldn't expect a very high level of privacy.
An amazing situation after flying 26 years and never having a problem with my medical equipment on NW, Delta or Continental, I was recently singled out and harassed when attempting to carry on a legitimate piece of medical equipment on a Delta flight.
The lead flight attendant questioned the extra bag, despite adequate on-board storage space on the flight.
You were legitimately "singled out" because you exceeded the carry-on allowance. Since all airlines are charging for checked baggage, you may expect the employees to monitor more closely the number of carry-ons per person. Regardless of whether there is "adequate" storage space or not.
The FA is just doing her job, which is hardly harassment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovtofly
When I explained it was a piece of medical equipment, she strongly recommended that the unit/carrying case be tagged as medical equipment so as not to be hassled on future flights.
As other posters are noting, this was a recommendation from an FA that apparently was trying to be helpful.
In short, the consensus here seems to be that the situation was handled correctly and that you should move forward.
I will add the comment that this likely will happen more and more as the airlines try to collect revenue from checked baggage. So you can either take the FA's suggestion, or be prepared to explain your situation every time. Your choice, though obviously it really upset you that you were asked about being over the carry-on limit.
David
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Baby cellistoo has a nebulizer and other drugs that we must take with us when we travel. I always have a tag on the bag that says MEDICAL in very large letters and only carry things medical related in the bag- meds, compressor, stethoscope, otoscope, cough medicine, Tylenol, etc. I have never had any problem at all bringing it on board the airplane or going through TSA with this bag. Because the liquids exceed the liquid allowance (the nebulizer capsules alone do this), I figure a little trade-off of privacy is worth less hassle. If you don't want to disclose the condition to your co-workers you could come up with a plausable sounding or funny excuse (cold medicine- in case hell freezes over, defibrillator to revive THEM in case the deal you are working on goes bad, running shoes because your doctor told you to work out more, etc- in case they ask. My guess is that they would get the hint and wouldn't question you further).
Another way to look at the situation might be to realize that while your co-workers may not be aware of your condition, if you are covered by your company's health insurance the company might be legally entitled to certain information about your medical claims. Also, the American's with Disabilities act was just recently "expanded" to cover many additional conditions- which mean that by disclosing your condition you may be actually protecting yourself from discrimination in the future.
BTW, I have never had anyone ask me what medical condition the MEDICAL bag was for- though I was not traveling with business colleagues and I could see that situation arising.
As others have stated HIPAA has nothing to do with any of this.
HIPAA for me, means that I can't talk to my co-workers or family or friends about your condition should I need to render aid. It has nothing to do with *seeing* a cpap or o2 bottle (as an example).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lovtofly
The lead flight attendant questioned the extra bag, despite adequate on-board storage space on the flight. When I explained it was a piece of medical equipment, she strongly recommended that the unit/carrying case be tagged as medical equipment so as not to be hassled on future flights.
As the recommendation appears to have been to label the item as an excempt class of carryon luggage, and not sharing of PII (Personally Identifiable Information), I'm not sure what violation occured. This appears to be a personal-space issue for you, so the question is... you were challenged regarding your carryon item limit, how do you get past that challenge to continue the boarding process? I'm not sure this is how not to be challenged (that's easy, don't exceed the carryon limit), it's how to get past the challenge, while maintaining your personal space.
In a reasonable way, you can compare this to other classes of exempt luggage, such as "Camera and/or pair of binoculars", or "Infant diaper bags". Some people would absolutely not want to label their camera bag with "Camera" (theft concerns), and others would refuse to label their infant bags with "Diapers" (social boundaries). Yet if they board with more then the allotted carryon luggage, and the extra carryon luggage is not obviously labeled or logoed as an exempt class (medical cross, Nikon logo, Pampers label), they should still anticipate to be challenged, and still be prepared to answer that challenge in a way in which they feel safe and comfortable.
So... how do you answer that challenge, in a way that's comfortable to you?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NWAFA
I don't believe the FA was out of line. This happened on a DL flight. Why is it posted in the NW forum?
Perhaps because the poster is primarily a NW flyer? Give 'em a break...
After all, we seemed to gain a lot of very... "passionate" ... DL flyers on the NW board as soon as the merger was announced (and more again after it was approved).
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Any views/opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not reflect the views or official positions of Northwest Airlines.
Perhaps because the poster is primarily a NW flyer? Give 'em a break...
After all, we seemed to gain a lot of very... "passionate" ... DL flyers on the NW board as soon as the merger was announced (and more again after it was approved).
Even so, this is a DL related thread, so it'll be moved to the DL forum.
I would doubt you have any recourse and in my opinion you shouldn't. I agree with the flight attendant that your medical baggage should be marked as such and whatever reasonable questions the airline has about your luggage are proper.
Short of the flight attendant getting on the PA and making an announcement about your situation you shouldn't expect a very high level of privacy.
How would you like the contents of your luggage displayed for all to see? Actually, who cares. The OP doesn't want to share the fact that he needs ANY medical device with the world. Those of us who need to carry such a device, whatever it is, expect to have to explain it to those who would seek to charge us extra fees. But to write it on the outside? No. It's none or your business whats inside his bag. The airline? Yes, they need to know -- one, so that the bag is exempt from sopme charges (if within policy) and two, to make sure the device is safe to fly (such as oxygen equipment).
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