Say My Name

Every so often, I highlight another example of people using the handy HIPAA rules as an excuse or a scapegoat for some ridiculous or underhanded behavior. We have seen clinic managers cover up malfeasance, administrators use it to cover up lost records, and office managers use it to explain whatever rudeness they have perpetrated on some poor patient. This one is the biggest stretch I have seen:

With the introduction of the HIPAA rules, our government has set out to help us by protecting our privacy. Now, almost everyone is calling new customers or patients by a first name.

It seems that HIPAA is a tool of the dread conspiracy to call us all by our first names!