Help with Medical Collections - Hipaa Violation?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I have been working on removing collections that should not be there, and have 3 of 8 now removed through some hard work and asking the right questions. I asked two medical collections for validation, and one sent me an itemized list of my actual diagnoses and procedures/treatments.

I think this violates one of the fair credit / hipaa laws, but I'm not sure which ones and how to respond to the collection agency, the original creditor (a primary care clinic) and the CRAs. 

Thanks for the help!

[Anonymous]

While we are not allowed to discuss it on this forum, Google Why Chat's Credit Confusion... GL!

[gdale6]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

While we are not allowed to discuss it on this forum, Google Why Chat's Credit Confusion... GL!

---

The actual HIPAA law is fine to discuss, its the so called HIPAA Process that cannot be discussed on this board.

[RobertEG]

HIPAA includes an exemption that permits information related to a medical debt to be provided to debt collectors, but only to a very limited extent.  The information cannot disclose specifics of the consumer medical condition or of medical services provided.

Permissible disclosure to debt collectors is limited to only what is reasonably needed to pursue collection of the debt, such as name, address, dates of services, etc.

If the debt collector provided a listing of specific medical services, that is likely a violation of HIPAA.

You can pursue the violation by way of a formal complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights.

While the FCRA does not include any provisions that mandate removal of a collection based on violations of HIPAA, if you demonstrate such violations, it may be leverage for you to obtain a settlement for less and/or a pay for deletion agreement with the debt collector.

They may, if the violation is serious, accept an agreement in order to avoid a civil suit.