Originally Posted by
RosemaryT
About a month ago, I had to get some of my father's medical records for a VA application. I told the doctor (during one of my father's visits) that I'd need this info. He said he'd have it waiting for me at the desk. The office called one day and said it was ready for pick up.
I went into the office and told the receptionist that I was there for the documents.
She *refused* to release the documents to me without a photo id. I said, "You're kidding me, right?"
She was not.
I pointed out that THEIR office called ME and told me these documents were ready. She said she would not release the documents until I produced a government-issued photo ID.
I then asked if theft of Thomas Hoyt's medical records was a common problem at this facility and she said, "No."
Long story but I had to produce my driver's license - which they took and COPIED - before they'd give me my father's medical records.
BTW, I'm his POA and on his HIPPA forms, so this was not about any of that.
So, I guess in addition to "For The Children" we can now add, "For the Elders."
TSA and DHS and all their TomThuggery - coming to a medical office near you.
Rose
I understand and agree with your concerns, yet let's be reasonable and state that in the event of an audit, how does a 3rd party measure that the person picking up the documents were you? I could just as simply have walked up and declared "I am that person, please give me what you have for that person". This way, like it or not, an auditor can look at the copy and say "that person picked up that document", and if the id was forged, they can claim best-effort controls and forward it to the authorities for follow-up.
This is really just another reason to get a passport card. It is a photo id issued by a government agency, and contains nothing except your Passport No, Nationality, Name, DOB, POB, and issue and expire date. No address, or other PII or SPII data (
let's not go down the rabbit-hole of rfid). If anyone knows of a government issued id that has
less data on it, please share.
