Patient records ... Yeowza!!

Purchased a unit some days ago ... I knew it was an office of some sort, wasn't sure what. Really, it looked to be close to a hoarder type ... Against my better judgement (I dont do company units typically) ... I bid, won, and here I am digging through it.

Well -- Long story short -- Medical clinic. Typical roach office furniture. Lots of old computer equipment. And a whole wall, (10 x 20), of medical records, patient RX slips etc etc etc.

Come to find out, its basically a pill mill factory, located right next door to the storage facility.  I called them and told them of my ownership, they were not real concerned. Got the brush off, even when I made mention of the major HIPPA violations being that those records were in my possession.  I really hate dealing with former owners, 99% of the time those deals never work out.

So here I am getting ready to dumpster all this --- any thoughts on who to contact to 'drop the dime' on these pill pushing asshats for letting all these records out of their possession?

If you want to get their attention, give the local TV station or newspaper a call!!

No that long ago in Seattle, someone found medical records in a dumpster. The TV station played that for a couple of days.

Wayne

Agreed.  Call the local media, and then call the AMA.  They wouldn't care much for that, especially with the flippant attitude the clinic had when you called.

They must be freaking crazy.  They could quickly get slapped with a $100k fine for each offense.  If they are older medical records they have SSN's all in the record also.  They only way they would be covered is if every one of those patients were dead.  Even then your talking about some major bad publicity.  You can report violations via the url below.


http://www.hhs.gov/

Dunno if it's too late, but don't dumpster the stuff.  You could be violating HIPAA, especially since you've documented here that you know about it.  If they won't take it back, I'd leave with the facility as personals.  Also, certainly contact the local media as others have suggested.  They love that stuff, and that will either straighten out the clinic or destroy them.