Dear BravoRx,

Please get your collective heads out of your asses and research what is and is-not information that is protected by HIPAA.  Today I had to spend 20 min on the phone yelling at one of your representative because they would not give me the birth date they had on file (which was wrong) because they said it was a HIPAA violation.   Because your company sucks and you are lazy, I will spell it out for you.

If I fill Rx’ for a patient, I fall under “patient care” therefore no medical information can be withheld from me in the name of HIPAA.  Go look it up.

Here, I’ll do it for you:
http://www.hhs.gov/hipaafaq/administrative/259.html

Can a pharmacist use
protected health information to fill a prescription that was telephoned
in by a patient’s physician without the patient’s written consent if
the patient is a new patient to the pharmacy? #

_
Yes. The pharmacist is using the protected health information for
treatment purposes, and the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not require covered
entities to obtain an individual’s consent prior to using or disclosing
protected health information about him or her for treatment, payment,
or health care operations._

See that? FOR TREATMENT PURPOSES.  However this clause does not apply because a birthdate is not MEDICAL INFORMATION!!!  Its a fucking birthdate! Get your head out of your ass!  Its not a SS# but something that is pubically available!

So thank you BravoRx Rep, for wasting my time with your shitty substandard service and lousy reimbursement rates.

May the pox of Argus be upon thee,

TheAngryPharmacist

Comments #

Comment by Krissy on 2008-01-08 15:10:28 -0800 #

My guess: his wife stole the bottle and refilled for her own personal use? 🙂

Comment by Rebecca on 2008-01-08 19:12:29 -0800 #

hahahaha…PUBICALLY available…i almost peed myself. you’re right – insurance phone assistance jockeys suck. sometimes a person doesn’t qualify for a job at McDonald’s. where do you turn? that’s right. telephone operator at a health insurance company. at least i know that i will have job opportunities if this pharmacy thing doesn’t pan out. i hope your wednesday is easier than your tuesday.

Comment by Phathead on 2008-01-08 19:34:38 -0800 #

I’ve had insurance companies refuse to give me the patients name… because they had misspelled it. I had the name, address, phone number, ID number, SSN and they wouldn’t match it up because they had Petersen when it was Peterson. Actually now that I think about it I believe it was humana..

Comment by rph3664 on 2008-01-08 20:47:36 -0800 #

One insurance company that was used by lots of people in the town where I used to live once issued cards that did not match the computer entry; numbers were usually transposed or one digit off somewhere.
No, I don’t think it was a data entry error – at least, not one that was unintentional.
This didn’t last very long.

Comment by Hogarth on 2008-01-09 03:57:13 -0800 #

I’ve had PBMs tell me that the Rx number itself is HIPAA protected! That’s completely ludicrous.

Comment by Ryan Frank on 2008-01-09 11:00:02 -0800 #

I’ve always wondered why maintence meds like insulin (I’m a type 1 diabetic, so this is a personal interest of mine) can’t be given an ‘refil forever’ status. Short of a major medical breakthrough, I’m not going to stop needing insulin dangit.

Comment by Phathead on 2008-01-09 17:54:59 -0800 #

Hey TAP, I know this isn’t the right place for this but seeing as I can’t find another link for it, would you be willing to give me some advice on a bit of an issue I’m having? Not sure the best way to contact you but my blog link there will lead you to my issue. Thanks in advance.

Comment by sharksfan0825 on 2008-01-13 16:51:02 -0800 #

you forgot to mention the ‘i wont give you the brand/generic co. or ndc number we cover…. good luck guessing the last two digits.. oh BTW its also a discontinued drug’ ive had to deal with alot of dimwitted people at insurance companies over the years

Comment by rxkerber on 2008-01-14 14:07:11 -0800 #

I cannot tell you how many arguments I’ve had with the damn PBMs over this very issue. I’ve used the same reasoning, not protected info if used for payment and/or treatment of a patient. I mainly had these problems right when HIPAA went into effect. Not so much anymore.
Good luck