Hippa Violation?

[sunnyday]

I was going through my old bills, and I found a letter from a collection agency for a medical bill that I dv'd CMRRR, and I just realized that the collection agency had sent me a copy of my full bill from the ER with all of my procedures on there.  Is this a violation of the HIPPA law?  I thought hospitals were not allowed to give your medical info away to a collection agency.

[sunnyday]

bump

[Anonymous]

Whychat's answer to that is:

No, it is not a HIPAA violation. You signed a HIPAA release allowing your health care provider to provide neccessary data to collection agents for "business purposes".

[Anonymous]

While this may not be a HIPPA violation, I am curious as to whether this is a FCRA violation in light of the recent Pintos decision.

When you say "full bill", could you be more specific about the kinds of information shared. I don't want PHI data, just field names, so to speak.

For example, did they provide the CA with specific dates of service or specific procedures, lab results, diagnoses, etc.?