I was violently sexually assaulted after being drugged. I was then accused of physically assaulting the person who violently sexually assaulted me.
As a result of that accusation of physical assault, I spent time involuntarily at a psychiatric hospital that was extremely corrupt. Patients often were physically hurt, some died of neglect, and the staff who worked there were often emotionally abusive. Additionally, when patients complained or tried to exercise legal remedies to leave, they were often retaliated against, with corrupt psych tech workers writing lies in the charts of patients who lacked subservience. They killed one of my friends (by treating her medical illness as psychiatric, drugging her to the point she couldn’t stand… she saying she felt like her heart was beating so fast it was going to break, she screamed as they kept drugging her, until the physical disease made major advancements due to neglect and killed her). Worst of all, they all thought they were so wonderful and did not let people out unless they expressed “gratitude” and how wonderful the awful place was. Many of the workers there tried to proselytize patients when others weren’t around. To say I hate them all is a gross understatement and although I’m not religious, I hope one day there is a special version of hell for all of them and that they suffer greatly.
In order to deal with their corruption, I agreed with everything they said, even the stuff that made no sense. I was sometimes diagnosed with illnesses I clearly didn’t have. For example, they would say something like “It looks like you have trichotillomania” (this is a disorder in which people compulsively remove hair) and I would be like “yep, makes sense” despite having a full head of hair, no scabs, and no hallmark signs of trichotillomania, and I would literally agree with their stupid conclusions because I thought it would make it more likely I wouldn’t be killed by their neglect. (By their neglect, I mean that they regularly kept the most violent psychotically unstable patients with others who were vulnerable and every day was a random chance of death.) Most of the people who worked there were morons, and I left the facility without a PTSD diagnosis despite having frequent flashbacks of being sexually assaulted. I did not mention flashbacks or try to get any care there because they were all psychologically abusive and nothing good ever happened there. They also diagnosed me with many disorders (possibly over 10? I lost track of all the bullshit) and said I needed about 10 different medications, many of which were tranquilizers, many of which I had spit into the toilet for the long duration of my stay. I promised I would take them all… forever… and was so grateful… and eventually left. The hospital left me psychologically much much more damaged and the only thing it really did is teach me how to lie better.
As soon as I was out as a result of agreeing with their idiocy, I threw out all the pills and got a full-time job doing [redacted]. Fast forward [redacted] years after my release, and I still have a full time job and medical insurance which I have actually never used during my entire employment. I get what are possibly panic attacks whenever I am near any hospital. But I am trying to get medical care because I have an unexplained lump. I am looking for a primary care doctor and every place has something called “MyChart” and multiple places have information, including my social security number and address at this involuntary facility, something I never said MyChart could have, never agreed to. Yet again, my boundaries are not being respected.
So I consider my prior address at this facility to be personally identifiable information and Social Security number to be personally identifiable. I did not sign a HIPPA release to willingly share this with MyChart. I also spoke with several hospitals and they said that even if set up a different profile, because there’s the same social security number, they will eventually be merged.
Doctors are incredibly expensive. I do not want to talk with each new doctor, at 500 dollars an hour, about a sexual assault and past diagnosis at a hospital which I only supplied invalid information to in the hopes of leaving quickly enough to not be killed. I just want a damn lump looked at to find out if I have cancer. I hate doctors, I probably have worse PTSD from being in that shithole of a facility but will never know because I will never talk with a psychiatrist or psychologist again and I sometimes also get flashbacks of the hospital. I generally avoid medical care entirely because of that awful place and am only dealing with this now because there’s a lump that is quite possibly cancerous.
Every doctor will want to ask me about this at 500 dollars an hour, every doctor will want me to sign a release and charge me for reviewing these records and may refuse to provide care if I don’t once they see I was in this horrible place. They will want me to pay 500 an hour or more to explain why I disagree with each diagnosis. It’s a horrible waste of money, it’s invasive of my privacy, and I have NEVER consented for any of this medical information to be shared with a central database called MyChart. I’m terrified of being held against my will and forcibly drugged again just by seeing a doctor.
Is this something that is legal under HIPPA? For all of this information to be sent to MyChart without my consent, which inherently shares things like address information and prior places of treatment with any provider that has this? This seems like it should actually be protected information under HIPPA (who I’ve seen, previous addresses, all linked to my social). Multiple potential providers knew of my address at this horrible psychologically abusive facility, at which point I told them I would have to see someone else. Am I able to demand that MyChart delete a profile about me?
I am so fucking angry. My privacy is always stolen from me. I’m not a perfect person, but I just want medical care without having to be charged 500 an hour for someone to be required under their own ethical rules to pressure me to see a doctor and get drugged and discuss a being sexually assaulted. I just want a lump looked at. I just want medical care for the specific things I need medical care for.
If there is no way to stop this, I will just continue to not get medical treatment and if the pain gets worse or it spreads, I’ll just overdose on something like heroin so I can avoid interacting with doctors. The flashbacks of the rape and from the hospital constantly bother me, perhaps death is alright. I just have no privacy, I can’t have any privacy at all. That hospital taught me clearly: my boundaries do not matter. My body, that’s not private… and when I was locked up they forced me, on threat of not releasing me (which could mean death) to discuss things over and over with all sorts of new people, including group therapy with patients I disliked that was effectively required or they wouldn’t release me, including new doctors who rotated in and out of a facility. I hope it was elucidating for those rotating fucks and that they learned something from my forced discussions, which were done under fear of death, since they moved non-compliant patients to more violent areas of the hospital. I just give up, fuck medical care.
Can MyChart do this? I feel like they are violating me all over again and I want everything they have about me deleted forever. I also have never authorized MyChart during those times, never said it was okay.
HIPAA allows medical care providers to share your information with each other for the purposes of providing care (whether that sharing happens through MyChart or some other means). It does not require your consent (and this could be a good thing if, for example, you were taken to a hospital while unconscious). You simply may not have a lot of options for preventing this. As NOT_RICK mentioned, you could opt out of Care Everywhere at the psychiatric hospital to prevent them from sharing your information that way. You could also try to amend their record or request that they restrict access to your records, as per https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html#general. All of those options would require interacting with the original psychiatric hospital, so if you’re unwilling to do that, I’m not aware that there are other options available.
This sounds correct. Thank you.
This explains why MyCare is doing this. Because technically there’s a HIPPA exception to allow them to do this, so it’s not a violation of HIPPA. I should have realized this, but didn’t.
I am not sure asking the evil hospital to restrict access to their records will work because it’s showing in MyChart as a former address but I’m not sure other places have the information. The problem is the address is associated with that psychiatric facility and may show in my chart as “Mental Health Behavior Modification Hospital,” it has a name that makes it clear what it is, and so doctors may refuse to treat me without a release of those records, leading to lots of hours billed talking about mental health instead of seeing if I have cancer. I also will refuse any mental health screenings/questionnaires, etc., and so it may result in them refusing to care for me.
Before spending all that money talking to another doctor, talk with a lawyer who knows healthcare related law. If your full time job has an employee assistance program, it may cover a consultation with a lawyer. A lawyer will be able to tell you what rights you have at a federal, state, and local level, and should know if there is a process to compel the hospital to restrict your records.
Hey, I’m a provider at a hospital who uses MyChart everyday and would like to offer perspective from the other side.
In Mychart I’m sure it stores previous addresses somewhere, but I have no idea where I would even find this information, and can basically guarantee no one else is going to be looking for it.
Part of HIPPA is that we can only access information that is pertinent to your current treatment as a provider. A specialist like someone who works at a cancer clinic would have no reason to access or question you about a previous treatment in a mental health facility unless you have something like a brain tumor.
Also in MyCharts certain notes containing sensitive information like metal health treatment or sexual assault are usually automatically locked out unless additional consent is given by patients, or unless it is directly associated with the current providers treatment plan.
Healthcare visits are not reimbursed by time, but by visit type. It doesn’t matter if I spend 10 min or an hour with a patient. If the visit type is for a specific treatment they are reimbursed at the same rate. The affordable care act highly regulated how facilities are reimbursed for care, wether they are insured or lack coverage. And for the most part providers at hospitals have little to no control on how the hospital charges patients.
I haven’t really heard of anyone refusing care because someone didn’t fill out a mental health screening. I specialize in orthopedics and rehabilitation, so that’s not exactly pertinent to my field. But we have people who refuse to fill out paperwork all the time, and i don’t really care unless it’s pertinent to my current treatment plan.
For me to refuse my services the hospital requires me to have a really good reason why, like attempting to assault me or the staff.
If someone asks you about your previous treatment at the facility and it has nothing to do with your current appointment, I would just ask them how it pertains to your current visit. If they try and make a big deal about it, I would just ask for their manager, and ask them why the provider asked about sensitive information that doesn’t have anything to do with your current treatment.