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A question to the forum. I have a sticky situation whereby I suspect a patient of stealing a piece of office equipment. HIPPA prevents me I believe of naming the suspect to the police, but too many cooincidental clues point to only one person. The item stolen has much more value to me than on black market. Anyone with creative ideas on how to proceed? By the way, his phone was disconnected shortly after his last visit.

I do not know, but I would think that hippa rules would not protect one from criminal activity.
I would call the police and run by the scenario without the specific name to start with.

Done already. Our malpractice carrier recommended not releasing the name, so here I stand stuck.

The police don't need to know someone is your patient, maybe it was the cleaning lady.

They would ask why we think they are a suspect. By releasing the name, they would be able to infer it is a patient since the person had no other reason to be in the office suite.

They could infer that, but not everyone in a doctor's office is a patient. You could be speaking about an employee, the UPS driver, or the guy who picks up the lab coats for cleaning. Even if they did infer it's a patient, I would think it would fall under incidental disclosure. What does your HIPPA compliance officer say about it?

Why don't you just report the theft, and let the police do their investigation, and expect that they will be able to sort out the HIPAA issues?

Hipaa specifically allows for disclosure of PHI for public health, safety and law enforcement purposes. I am not a lawyer but I think your malpractice carrier is full of it. I would call the police.

Call the police. I have never heard of anyone being actually reprimanded by HIPPA for anything. Your malpractice carrier is out in left field.

So if a patient came into your office, put a gun in your secretary's face and said "give me your money", then your malpractice carrier would say "don't call the police; it is a HIPAA violation?" So now HIPAA is interpreted to mean that BECAUSE a criminal is a patient, we cannot report them?

Call the police. Don't make crazy allegations but call them and tell them the facts. Maybe the forum will create a legal defense fund for you if you are charged with a HIPAA infraction.

I thought about this quite a bit and agree with the others. It is appropriate to call the police. Otherwise as Jon says above any patient could have automatic sanctuary for criminal activity conducted in your office because they are your patient.

I think we are actually obligated to report criminal activity. I think the carrier is always going to error on the side of protecting themselves if it is unclear. Did you talk to an actual lawyer?

Sorry to hear what happened to you.
HIPPA DOES NOT protect this person.
This is a criminal act; ie a crime occured. You can report this to authorities without divulging privilaged medical information.

EXAMPLES:
OK:'My patient Mr... stole my car'
Not OK: 'My HIV POSITIVE patient Mr... stole my car!'

Financial institutions have similar law but you can be sure they call the police and say: 'Our client Mr. Smith stole money." They don't say 'Our client Mr Smith who deposits $1000K per day sole money.'

HIPPA would only be in violation in this case if the cops came to question you and you divulged what you saw the patient for. YOu don't need to give any medical information, just that you have someone you suspect of stealing somethign from the office and go from there.

You need to talk to your malpractice carrier about getting their Sh*t straight, if they don't know basic stuff, you may want to think about a different carrier who does know how to take care of you in a bad situation. Just a thought.

And your carrier should have had you talk to one of the lawyers they have on retainer. They shouldn't have just given you the answer of don't report them.

I would make an issue of this with them, it may come in handy when you have a case against you to know that your malpractice is doing things properly and in your best interest. I have had a great experience with my malpractice carrier even when I was getting sued. They had me talk to the lawyer first and directly when it all got started and they helped guide me to a decision.

I agree with everyone above. Call the police and give the name. I could be dead wrong here, but I don't necessarily think that divulging someone is your patient is a violation of confidentiality UNLESS you are a specialty practice like nephrology or, even worse, psychiatry or an HIV clinic. I have patients ask me all the time if so and so goes to my office, and I tell them.

To be honest, I couldn't care less about HIPAA. I hate the term and still use the phrase Breech of confidentiality. I have yet to see a HIPAA police. But, how is someone being identified as a patient in a FP office a violation of confidentiality. It just means they go to that practice.