Healthcare providers who have responded to poor reviews on sites such as Yelp have run into trouble with the HIPAA privacy rule for addressing specific complaints, ProPublica reports.
While providers can speak generally about how they practice, the rule bars the release of any personal health information without permission.
In one instance, a California dentist replied to a patient's allegation of misdiagnosis, saying:
"I looked very closely at your radiographs and it was obvious that you have cavities and gum disease that your other dentist has overlooked. … You can live in a world of denial and simply believe what you want to hear from your other dentist ... "
In an analysis of Yelp reviews by ProPublica, it found 3,500 one-star reviews, the lowest ranking, involved mentions of privacy or HIPAA. It also found many disputes were related to privacy rather than medical care, some even reported to the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
ProPublica reported previously that repeated HIPAA violators tend not to be fined, and that providers generally face no consequences for small privacy breaches.
Just because a patient makes public claims doesn't mean a doctor also can address those claims publicly, according to Deven McGraw, OCR's deputy director of health information privacy.
Most medical and dental reviews aren't about the medical service delivered, but about wait times, office staff, billing and other concerns, according to Yelp's senior director of litigation, Aaron Schur. Doctors who respond--and many don't--tend to invite patients to discuss the matter offline or merely apologize.
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