I need to know what information a relative has access to
They should have none unless you have authorized the release or they belong to a dependent that you have guardianship over.
My relative is a pharmacist at the pharmacy I use for most of my meds. I need to know if he has access to information about meds I get from a different pharmacy. They are all using an online system now so I am curious about what information is available.
If you are using shared insurance, the named insured may get the EOB. For my daughter, I get some but some prescriptions don’t necessitate an EOB (birth control doesn’t).
I also get a call from the pharmacy (CVS system) telling me her prescription is ready for pick up because I’ve had the same phone number for many years and that’s the number that was in their system from years ago. We’ve asked for it to be updated but they never do it. I still get the calls from the pharmacy and I can easily call to find out what the prescription is for, to have it transferred to a pharmacy near me for pick up, etc. Not hard to find out what it is for.
No…this is a nephew. No shared insurance.
If he is a pharmacist, then he can see your your precriptions within the same company pharmacy,. CVS to CVS for example. If it is a narcotic, most states allow pharmacists to see all narcotic prescriptions from any pharmacy.
Of course he would be violating HIPAA regulations, if he isn’t your own personal pharmacist.
My wife’s a pharmacist. Only the pharmacy staff, you, and the person you authorized in the Record Release form, can have the access to your records, not your spouse, brother, parents, nephew, etc.
Regarding your questions posed in #2, @freshlysqueezed is correct.
EXCEPT: I’m not sure just having that access by the pharmacist is in violation of HIPPA regulations. Revealing that info to others would, however.
Interesting, because I drop off/pick up prescriptions for my DH and S all the time! Noone ever questions it, even though S2 is no longer on our insurance. If I call CVS, they sometimes ask if my S has given permission to call. And now that I think about it, when I set up my online CVS pharm account under DH’s plan, it gave me the option to view other family members’ prescriptions. SInce I’m the organizer of these things, this is useful.
If your nephew looks at your records and then says anything to anyone, that’s a HIPAA violation and it can get him fired.
Heck, I worked at Vanguard 30 years ago and we were not allowed to search for famous people to see if they had mutual fund accounts. It was a fireable offense even then.
“Interesting, because I drop off/pick up prescriptions for my DH and S all the time! Noone ever questions it, even though S2 is no longer on our insurance.”
Anyone can drop off/pick up your DH and S’s prescriptions as long as that person has the name, address and birth date.
Whether you tell anyone or not, the simple act of opening the records of a patient that isn’t yours or isn’t authorized by the patient is a violation of of HIPAA. Computers record who open records.
I think there are two separate questions.
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Is it legal for the nephew to pull up the OP’s records to see the prescriptions in a context other than the OP filling a prescription at that particular pharmacy? No.
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Is there a way that he can get at the records even though it is not authorized? Unfortunately, probably yes, if the information is in a system he has access to. All the stuff is computerized and very likely keyed to some basic information that a relative might know, such as primary phone number. Unfortunately, the world is full of unethical people who do unauthorized things.
It seems to me that if the OP really doesn’t want his/her nephew to access the scripts, he should move them to another pharmacy chain. However, I assume the existing scripts will remain in the database.
a few years ago, there was a kid we knew who wasn’t necessarily friends at all with my son working at our local target pharmacy – and i switched locations because of that. I know there’s hippa rules and etc . . . but that was just too close for comfort. I felt uncomfortable with him there.
I would like to use the pharmacy my nephew works for most of my medications, for a variety of reasons. I am on two medications though that I do not want him to know about (neither are addictive pain killers) My dr. of course, would know about all of my prescriptions (though those two are the only regular meds I am on, there are other things that come up from time to time), so would know about potential drug interactions. I am always very careful though so I am very confident the pharmacist I am currently using for those two meds would be happy for me to check with him about any potential interactions (since I would be keeping part of my business there).
This is not about me giving anyone permission, or whether or not he would share that info (he wouldn’t)…this is about what shows up in the normal course of business on a pharmacist’s records.
Two completely different companies–one small town independent pharmacy and one large national chain pharmacy. What I need to know is how much are their records connected. I was really hoping to hear from a pharmacist so I would know for sure.
@freshlysqueezed I am asking about the consequence of becoming one of his patients
What consequences would there be?
whether or not he can see the prescriptions I am getting filled at another pharmacy
I’ve had both answers from people who think they know but are not pharmacists.
Why don’t you ask the other pharmacy if pharmacists who don’t work for them have access to their records? They’re the ones who would know.