HIPAA protects patient privacy

Dear Dr. Gott: I’ve been reading your column for years and find most of what is written informative and interesting. However, being a member of the health care industry myself, I can’t help but comment on your frequent suggestion of family members or friends consulting with another adult’s physician to give or share information.

May I remind you that HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is enforced throughout the country and protects a patient’s privacy regarding personal health information. Without the patient’s written permission, even a spouse or parent of an adult child would not be able to discuss personal information with the physician, let alone a friend or other relative, no matter how concerned they may be.

Dear Reader: You are, indeed, correct in your comments about HIPAA. Although this system raises important objections about spousal information, it does protect the public from gaining private health data.

However, if friends or relatives of a patient are concerned, HIPAA does not prevent them from calling the patient’s physician and explaining the situation. This can help the doctor better care for the patient.

Dear Dr. Gott: I am 76 years old. I hope you can help me. I was in very good health until early 2004, when I was having a little back pain. I was walking with two of my sisters three times a week for about three miles. After about one mile, my left leg started hurting. I would sit down for a few minutes and then was able to start walking again. This went on for a few weeks, and I went to a neurosurgeon, who said that I had some bulging discs and needed an operation.

That did not help at all, and he sent me to a pain clinic for epidural shots, which also did not help. He then sent me to a pain-management clinic, where they tried several treatments. I said “no more treatments” and now am in worse pain than ever. The pain-management doctor sent me to a neurologist, who prescribed additional drugs. I hate taking drugs. I do not want to take any more pain drugs or injections. .

Dear Reader: Leg pain worsened by exercise and relieved by rest may be intermittent claudication, muscle cramps caused by poor circulation.

I advise you to return to your primary care physician for circulatory testing. Claudication is treatable with medications in its early stages and by surgery in its advanced stages.

To give you related information, I am sending you a copy of my health report “Managing Chronic Pain.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a long, self-addressed, stamped envelope and $2 to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title.