It is against California Privacy Laws, and the patient can sue from what I read.
Posted By: paintyper on 2007-06-11
In Reply to: I thought offshoring WAS illegal!!! - susancarol
They (companies that outsource) are probably lining the pockets of the politicians!
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It does violate privacy or employment laws.
I've posted about it before because there were MTSOs trashing MTs by name on some of the boards. My mother is an HR director, so she's told me what companies legally can and can't divulge about employees or former employees. Companies are not allowed to prevent people from securing employment, or slander/libel them. Personal opinions cannot cloud the reference. They can only confirm or deny the accuracy of certain items, such as employment dates, etc. I think the most judgmental question they can answer is, "Would you rehire this person?" Yes or no.
California MTs and OT laws - Question for ya.
Hey there,
I work for Spheris. My supervisor just informed me that from this point forward, I cannot work OT.
Are there any Spheris MTs from California who could e-mail me about what I could do as a cut in pay right now is devastating.
There are exceptions for people who do piece work I have read and wonder if there is a way to get around this. I am paid by exam and sup says when I work 2 minutes OT, they have to pay me OT for every exam, plus if I work over 5 days, OT for the whole week, or over 8 hours, OT for the hourly pay...
Needless to say, I am devastated by this... as I live alone. Need I say more? ::sigh::
You need to read IRS laws....they have to pay
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OP SAID the patient was not ESL, the doc was. READ.
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Can't read patient's names - need suggestions
Where I work, we receive a faxed schedule each day of the patient's names, but is very, very hard to read. The clinic is not very cooperative AT ALL in changing this, even though we are using a magnifying glass to try to read. Every time we spell name wrong it is returned as an error. Any suggestions on what we can do on our part to rectify this?
Go to MTChat and ask California self-employed MTs or do a SEARCH in LOCAL MTs for California. We ha
.
If they don't read their reports how do they know what's wrong with patient next time he sees
I think all state labor laws are pretty much in line with the federal laws as far as PTO SM
among other things. Basically, federal law states that an employer is not required to offer paid time off or paid holidays. An employer doesn't have to pay you for time not worked. It states quite clearly that PTO is an agreement between the employer and employee upon hire. So, if you have an agreement with your employer stating you accrue PTO and get certain Holidays off with pay, then upon termination or resignation, you are entitled to any unused time you have accrued. However, since not mandated by any state or federal laws, if an employer refuses to pay you for any unused PTO, you will have to take legal action, likely in small claims court. You will probably eventually win, but you have to decide is it worth all the trouble and legal fees?
When you actually get right down to it, labor laws really don't do much for the working class. We are not guaranteed anything except minimum wage and a safe work environment.
Putting patient versus The patient (sm)
When did this "rule" come about? I've been an MT/Editor/medeical records tech/ART for 30 years - Never, ever was I told to put that. You cannot make the sentence be "The patient sent to Radiology" but you can put "Patient sent to Radiology."
Thats just insane.
all has to do with everyone's right to privacy--sm
and possible identity theft. We are not living *back before politically correct* any long and we need to protect ourselves in ALL areas of our lives, including the privacy of our medical records. Your grandparents' medical records and information are not yours to give away. That is up to them. Perhaps they do not want your child's school knowing all of their information. What if someone at that school happened to know those grandparents, found out about their medical history, and started blabbing it all over the place. This is what medical record privacy is for..to protect those that do not want it divulged to just anyone who asks for it. It may not bother you, but it bothers others, and that should be a protected right. This is just my take on privacy.
Enough with invasion of privacy
Its is all getting so frightening, the invasion by companies into peoples lives. I have worked at nine hospitals, two trans companies on-site, three trans companies at home and never have I had a background check OR drug screen. The policy for drug screening at the hospitals was if you seemed like you were under the influence your boss could request a drug screen but never happened to ME or any of my coworkers. Physical exam, sure I got those when I worked at the hospitals but they paid for the physical exam and they also covered me for insurance. The trans company I work for now does not provide medical coverage or life insurance coverage for statutory employees, so I dont see why they would be concerned about my health status. Lets face it, they are concerned with how much we can pound away each day and that is it. We get paid for what we produce. So under these circumstances, they dont need to be poking their nose IN my background, my urine or my physical body. If it is checking on my experience, well they already did that by talking to previous employers and coworkers and guess I passed the test, as I was hired.
I think they are violating your privacy
I'd check it out on the ALCU web site if you don't find anything regarding that there email them and ask about it... or Google in workplace privacy. I think they are way out of line when it is your personal computer and not theirs. If it's theirs they are within their rights
when privacy direct first came out.....sm
it only cost $2/month extra - today I think it costs $19.95 but to me it's worth it because #1 it cuts all telemarketer calls (and I have been on the Do Not Call list since that began) and I can also take my phone charges off my MTSO business at tax time......
call your phone company and ask them if they offer anything like Privacy Director. *S* 
Privacy question.
I do occasional IC work for a provider that I have known a while now. Today i did some work for her and found something that really bothers me. The physician dictates the patient's full name, street address and home phone number in addition to her DOB. Is that HIPPA compliant? I'm sorry folks but I really don't want my street address and phone number available across the internet even if it is "so called" secure. I would like your thoughts.
Privacy standards?
Who actually do you contact to report a breech of privacy standards in this business? I probably should know this by now, but I don't.
No you should not tell. I do believe it is a violation of privacy since you are doing the report.
The guy has to do what he has to do obviously to exist with his sorry self.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule...(sm)
...requires a covered entity to make "reasonable efforts to limit use, disclosure of, and requests for PHI to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose." The only AHA-approved HIPAA training program, HIPAA Academy, specifically states in its training materials that HIPAA intends that personal information be limited to document headers unless absolutely required I will quote page 4-56:
"In practice, we expect the minimum-necessary requirement to lead to compartmentalization of the medical record so that one portion of the record (the body of the report) may be readily disclosed for one purpose without compromising the privacy of the entire record."
By limiting PHI to headers, reports can easily be redacted of personal information; when the PHI is scattered throughout the reports, this information cannot be redacted.
HIPAA Privacy Rule
http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20021100/35theh.html
the problem is that this is a violation of privacy
Hope you don't think it is okay to have your family members looking in on your computer while you are working!!
Not to make light of pt privacy, but
I type on a 14 inch laptop screen that I must keep about 2 feet away from my face in order to see it. In the course of seeing my laptop, my less than petite frame obscures probably the middle 50% of the screen. On the screen, there are endless lines of text that would be rather meaningless to the average barrista/customer. The patient demographics are obtained via a link on the toolbar. A 'hotkey' is entered throughout the report where the patient name appears and in the preparing-to-send process, these are all replaced with the patient's name. The hospital I type for is 3000 miles away.
I can see where this might be problematic should someone with better vision than I manage to see around my hulking slumped body and see 25% of the text on the left and 25% of the text on the right and know enough about transcription to be able to fill in those rather large blanks on each line (and that doesn't even take into account that most laptops are made to be viewed head-on; side viewing, viewing from above, etc., distort the picture to make it all but illegible). I suppose this could still be problematic if this eagle-eyed contortionist with an intuitive knowledge of medical terminology and knowledge of random software programs to find that demographic button can psychically detect which hospital of the thousands in the country I am working on and happens to have a relative who lives in that very town ready, willing, and eager to spill the beans about Madame X's bunion. Yes, I can see where this is a danger. I guess I should thank my lucky stars that I have not run into either this fellow or chupicabra at my local coffee house.
Guide for HIPAA PRivacy Rule
Covers for Stedman's books are designed by the graphic artist who works with them.
Correct about breach of privacy and its NOT too late
As others have stressed on this board, both here and under the politics board, you have a voice and have the opportunity to make it heard. I personally have been e-mailing my US and state elected officials at least once a week. At the Women for Democrats website one of their goals is to bring American jobs back to America. http://democrats.senate.gov/checklistforchange/checklist.cfm The credit card processor for my bank, Heartland, recently had a huge breach in their security system. Per our local State Police this theft is way up due to 2 factors (1) Once our private information leaves the US, those entities are NOT governed by US law and there is little they can do about it; (2) the economy as more people are now willing to buy that information. He said the same goes for our medical information. If you do a search for "medical identify theft", there are over 70,000 hits on that, mind you I did it in quotes, so most likely more without it. This was published Jan 2009, so recent, with many links at the end including a US Government report. http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/report-hhs-must-lead-medical-identity-theft-fight/2009-01-26?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss&cmp-id=OTC-RSS-FHI0 In the years 2000-2004, I was one of the front runners fighting mortgage servicing fraud (very complex, see MSfraud.org) We were told then that there was "nothing to be done" - well a lot of victims of that fraud banded together and did make a BIG difference. We can too by getting our voices heard, working together as a team and following the many suggestions on this very informative forum at MT Stars.
HIPPA=Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act
Yes, I saw the ad also and felt it was an insult to offer that line rate for what they wanted from an IC. I put the definition of what the initials HIPPA mean for your benefit.
Get Steadman's Guid to the HIPAA Privacy Rule
:)
Stedman's Guide to the HIPAA Privacy Rule has one.
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It is not a breech of privacy to send unencrpyted email...
the healthcare provider , i.e. the doc, establishes the standards for protecting privacy of records. You (or your service) is the Business Associate who COMPLIES with whatever standards the doctor sets. Some docs send files by email, some want encryption. Hospitals, obviously, generally do more locking down on their stuff, as they are more open to lawsuits. All YOU have to do to be HIPAA compliant is to COMPLY witih the standards the doc sets. It is not up to you to set them. Also what you and everyone else forgets about HIPAA is it is a two part process. Not only does the patient's medical records have to be disclosed BUT the patient must also suffer a loss because of the disclosure. So even if your doc stands out on the street and tells passers-by about Mrs. So and So and her athlete's foot, unless she incurs a loss from that, it's not a HIPAA violation. Remember this whole thing came about because a pharmacy tech went home and told her high school son that another classmate's father was coming in for HIV drugs...get the picture? Something private was disclosed inappropriately and that's how the girl found out her father was HIV positive.
Work privacy - discussing one employee in hearing of another
I posted a question on the legal board because it is a legal question about workplace privacy and I thought somebody there might know, but please check it if you know anything about laws or agencies that protect worker privacy.
Don't think the worker privacy acts cover discussions such as this...
more likely they cover things like credit reports, evaluations, etc. It's rude to discuss in front of others, but not illegal...of course, in the US you can sue for anything.
Hospital fined for breach of octuplet mom's privacy
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/15/octuplet.mom.hospital/index.html
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The hospital where a California woman gave birth to octuplets in January has been fined $250,000 by the state because nearly two dozen medical workers, including doctors, illegally viewed her medical records, according to state health officials.
![Nadya](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/US/05/15/octuplet.mom.hospital/art.octuplets.gi.jpg")
Nadya Suleman was the subject of controversy after giving birth to octuplets in January.
Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower hospital, where Nadya Suleman's eight babies were born, revealed in March that 15 employees lost their jobs and eight others were disciplined for improperly accessing her computerized medical records.
There was no evidence that information from the medical files was leaked to the news media, which has intensely covered Suleman's story, according to Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the California Public Health Department's Center for Health Care Quality.
Six of the privacy breaches happened at other Kaiser Permanente facilities, which are linked into the same computer system housing medical records.
Suleman -- already a single mother with six children -- gave birth to octuplets conceived through in vitro fertilization, fueling controversy. News of her collecting public assistance for some of her children outraged many taxpayers.
maybe it's just a pure and simple invasion of privacy the poster feels they want to protect.
if you do your job, who cares if poster was released from prison. weren't companies hiring prisoners to do MT anyway and weren't they doing credit card customer service?
OpEd on Medical Records Privacy - Front Page of Yahoo
Thought this was interesting, as it pertains to us. On one hand, it could affect our ability to do our jobs at home. On the other, it could really crack down on medical information being sent to India.
--
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/yblevins
By Sue A. Blevins Tue Aug 26, 4:00 AM ET
Washington - How would you feel about your personal health information flowing freely over the Internet between public health officials, healthcare providers, insurance and data clearinghouse companies, and others – without your permission?
ADVERTISEMENT
If this doesn't sound like a good idea, it's time to become informed about federal health privacy law.
Today, when Americans visit a healthcare provider for services (including dental and eye exams), they receive a form with a title such as "Notification of Privacy Rights." Many assume that signing the form guarantees that personal information won't be shared with third parties. But the form offers no such guarantees. And neither does federal law.
In fact, the privacy rule established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) legally permits healthcare providers to share patients' information with more than 600,000 health- and data-related entities – without a patient's consent. Yet the notification form doesn't clearly explain this.
Individuals control their information when they give consent; they don't with notification. When you sign a notification form, all you are doing is acknowledging its receipt. The HIPAA notification form offers no control over who sees your information and instead just tells you about some of the entities that can access your information, rather than asking for your permission.
Consequently, many physicians and other healthcare providers are urging Congress to strengthen privacy rights. They know firsthand that the HIPAA rule fails to ensure true confidentiality.
"...[T]he regulations under [HIPAA], which were intended to extend patient privacy as we moved from a paper-based system of medical records to a digital system, are a sham. HIPAA allows the routine release of personal health information without patient consent or knowledge, and even over a patient's objection…" stresses Dr. Janis G. Chester, president of the American Association of Practicing Psychiatrists.
As the ACLU put it, "HIPAA has so many medical privacy loopholes, it makes Swiss cheese look solid." The organization also points out that under existing federal regulations, the term "privacy" hasn't been well defined. The ACLU is urging Congress to define medical privacy as "patient control of electronic medical records."
Moreover, these organizations and others are lobbying for privacy amendments to key health Internet-technology (HIT) bills currently being considered in Congress.
Lack of privacy has serious consequences. It fosters making personal health information a commodity that businesses sell and trade in the marketplace, notes ACLU. Weak privacy rights also interfere with doctor-patient relationships. When drafting the HIPAA privacy rule, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) noted that "Privacy violations reduce consumers' trust in the healthcare system and institutions that serve them." The ACLU noted recently that at least one third of Americans are not sharing their complete personal medical histories because they feel their privacy will be weakened in the name of efficiency. Additionally, without strong privacy rights, individuals can't take steps to adequately protect themselves from bad, lost, stolen, or misused data.
Meanwhile, more and more personal data is being collected during routine healthcare visits, including information about marital and sexual matters. A married woman (wedded for over 30 years) and mother of two adult children, said she was appalled when asked during a routine visit if she preferred men or women. She stressed that while she "has nothing to hide," she doesn't think it's anyone's business what her sexual preference is or when her first sexual encounter was (which is often asked during exams).
What's more, it is becoming easier to share healthcare information with just a click of a mouse. As HHS has noted, "Until recently, health information was recorded and maintained on paper and stored in the offices of community-based physicians, nurses, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and institutions.... Today, however, more and more health care providers, plans, and others are utilizing electronic means of storing and transmitting health information…. In a matter of seconds, a person's most profoundly private information can be shared with hundreds, thousands, even millions of individuals and organizations at a time."
Do Americans really want the intimate details of their lives and families shared so easily without their consent? If not, they need to urge Congress to establish stronger privacy rights. Tinkering with HIPAA won't do it. That would just keep a lot of people busy rewriting regulations that don't guarantee privacy. Rather, Congress needs to pass a new law that defines "privacy" and upholds the precious ethic of consent. The new law should guarantee individuals' freedom to decide whether to be part of electronic medical-record and genetic databases for years to come.
• Sue A. Blevins is president of the Institute for Health Freedom in Washington.
California! nm
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California. nm
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3.19 in California . nm
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California MT's
Does anyone know why companies are unwilling to hire people who live in the state of California?
california MT's
So far we have been told by 2 companies that they will not hire from California, I am waiting on a reply from a recruiter who is checking into it. I think it may have something to do with the OT laws and the highest employment taxes in the nation.
Sucks Though!
Who designed the cover for Guide to HIPAA Privacy Rule published by Stedman's?
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Visalia, California
dd
California trans
Yes, they are a great company.
California's is $11 or $12/hour...sm
whereas Florida is bumping it up to $6.15 an hour next month I do believe or next year sometime....2006.
It's all relative when you think about housing costs, like in california.....you could live in a dump and it might cost a half million.
JF Kennedy, California
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Cold in California
Chance of snow tonight near Fresno. I know this is not your kind of cold, but for us it's unusual.
I live in California (sm)
Actually, they get quite a bit of time off in year-round school. My daughter started school July 24 and will go to the 1st part of October and then be off all October. Then she'll get two weeks off at Christmas/New Year's. Then she'll go until February and have that whole month off. Then she goes until the end of May and is off all of June and most of July until she starts 2nd grade. It makes it easy to plan vacations because we know when she'll be off, and we don't always have to plan a vacation when everyone else in the world is. We actually enjoy it!
Still 2.69 in central California. nm
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In-house pay in No. California is $22-30
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Come to California and you'll fit right in (sm)
with all of us fat MTs  And California is usually a "skinny, healthy" state - not that I've seen of in-house, hospital MTs, at least here in Northern California.
IMHO, you will do better working in-house in a "liberal" area or state, or employee-oriented state, because major employers know not to go there, or else 
California MTs: Please see inside
Are we required to have a business license in California for IC transcription work?
In California pay is $20-21/hour.
You don't do the work in California, do you?
If you are not physically in California doing the work, then you don't owe them tax money.
I would not fill the form out.
Not EVERYWHERE in California is expensive
I live in a rural area near Napa. It's a LOT chaaper here (home prices and rent) than in SoCal where I moved from last summer. California is a big state, lots of places to settle down. Have to take time to really look.
California Transcription LLC
HELP!!!! Can anyone tell me anything about California Transcription LLC???? I think it used to be called California Transcription Unlimited, but I'm not sure about that. Was just offered an overflow account with them, IC, but they only pay monthly, so I will end up typing for 6 weeks before I see a paycheck!! This is not a problem for me, but my only concern is that they are legit and actually pay people. Would hate to find out at the end of June that they are rip-off artists.
I REALLY need some input here gang. Does anyone on here work for them now or in the past, or know anything about them??? Thanks!!!
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