Hipaa and CA having minor child's information

[Anonymous]

On privacyrights.org it states:

HIPAA says the healthcare provider or health plan may disclose only the following information about you to a collection agency or credit bureau.

Name and address.

Date of birth.

Social Security number.

Payment history.

Account number.

Name and address of the one claiming the debt.

So, if the OC provided the CA with my minor child’s name (the one who received services) wouldn’t that be against Hipaa…….they are only supposed to supply what is minimally necessary to collect the debt. She is 8 years old…….not sure how them having her name and information would help collect the debt.

[Anonymous]

I'll be interested to see how this is answered.

I got ACS to tell me -- over the phone -- the first & last name, DOB, SSN, and even description of services received for a minor child.. who does not have the same last name as me, and I was not listed anywhere on the account. I gave them an acc't number that appeared on my report and they just spewed info.  

It turned out, it was my daughter, but with no info matching mine, they just took it at my word that it was my daughter... Apparently BioDad took her to the ER at some point & put HER (then, 2 years old) as the Responsible Party. And ACS tried to attach the debt to me because the physical address was the same as one of my debts.

[haulingthescoreup]

OP, my guess is that they can supply the name of the minor child because it establishes who received the services. To me, that would be part of the "minimally necessary to collect the debt." I know that I would balk at a collection for a service that I couldn't identify, if I weren't the patient and I didn't know who was.

Just my take on it!

[Anonymous]

The collector at ACS also told me over the phone what the medical visit was for. That, I KNOW, is against HIPAA. I used to work in a counseling firm & handled the billing. I didn't say anything about it then... I'm holding it in my arsenal for later though if they don't do what I want them to