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I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

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Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#31

> “They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. That screams HIPAA violation, to me. The practice could (and should) be shut down over it.

I'm curious if that is accurate or not. It hangs in a weird way in the article and doesn't indicate where the info was posted.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#32
post #4

This almost seems like a Slapp lawsuit.

Maybe, maybe not. A new patient visit and a routine annual aren't necessarily the same thing where insurance is concerned, and it's not the doc's fault if she's got a copay/deductible. That said, if she can prove this bit: > “They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver…

It does not say where it was posted and why she thinks it was them.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#33
post #29

It is good to hear the other side of the story. I find it impossible for a lawyer company to post medical records of someone else publicly since they are supposed to know what they are doing. I am all for give power to the people but I have seen this being abused a lot nowadays.

> They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address

If this is indeed true I'm not really interested to hear the other party story. Remember that the other party started the lawsuit and online reviews are something to get over with (unless the woman is backed by some entity that is going after that business)

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#34

I was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and…

>Wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge.

Basically an open and shut case too. Assuming they were smart enough to "correct" the mistake it may not be a Tier 4 ($50,000+) violation, but instead a Tier 3 violation ($10,000 - $50,000 per violation) of willful neglect. I'm not sure if each violation above would be considered a single large violation or multiple small violations ( 1 violation vs 7 violations is a major difference in penalty cost). There's also SLAPP.

If litigation has gone on long enough to cost her $20,000 in legal fees I can't help but feel there is a lot more to this story or my understanding of the legal system is completely out of touch...

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#35

Yelp doesn't seem to have brought a lot of a joy into anyone's life.

I disagree. Though it is not Yelp, I have seen business develop from customers who would have been out of reach to them if not for the Internet. Particularly in the hospitality business.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#36

I was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and…

That is awful, and they should be punished severely for that. This reveals a predicament for businesses that have to protect customer privacy. If a restaurant owner thinks a customer is lying, they can call the person out on all kinds of media and say they're a liar. Alamo Drafthouse made a set of videos to play before movies making fun of a customer complaint call, telling her to eff off. If a doctor believe a patie…

This is why, at least in the UK, there are several pathways to resolve disputes - both in the hospital trust and above it, which is in part to avoid this kind of scenario. If that doesn't resolve it the patient usually approaches a lawyer to seek compensation, and most times this is settled out of court and in private. When patients and family hit social media, the hospital/doctors are not able to publicly talk about the grievances, or can only put out a very limited public statement with permission (like the recent Alfie case).

I had a friend of mine who refused a request by a patient out of the country, while on-call one weekend. I'll leave out the details apart from it involved shipping a large quantity of a very expensive medication to another country - as the hospital did not have this medication available. He had already sent enough of this medication to cover for at least a week (at huge cost to the NHS, as the medication had to be couriered by plane) when a second request was received 2 days later. A huge internet hate-mob appeared on Facebook saying all sorts of things about this doctor by name, to which he had no ability to respond.

I'm for making healthcare more transparent, but I wonder if, as a doctor, we'd be pressurised into pleasing the patient more than treating the patients correctly, with the threat of negative yelp reviews, though that's obviously a risk with any sort of profession and review system.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#37
post #31

> “They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. That screams HIPAA violation, to me. The practice could (and should) be shut down over it.

I'm curious if that is accurate or not. It hangs in a weird way in the article and doesn't indicate where the info was posted.

Maybe she means all that info was exposed in the court case?

That's exactly the sort of "true but out of context" thing a tabloid like this site would use.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#38

I was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and…

That is awful, and they should be punished severely for that. This reveals a predicament for businesses that have to protect customer privacy. If a restaurant owner thinks a customer is lying, they can call the person out on all kinds of media and say they're a liar. Alamo Drafthouse made a set of videos to play before movies making fun of a customer complaint call, telling her to eff off. If a doctor believe a patie…

Not to discount your point, because it's mostly relevant, but in the Alamo Drafthouse case I don't ever think they reveal the name of the girl who makes the call.

Though I guess if a phone call had protected HIPAA information and you could tell who it was through their voice it might be a violation?

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#39

I was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and…

Deliberately writing bills for services not performed is fraud. Of course there can be billing mistakes and corner cases where it is not clear what exactly has been performed. Excessive billing that goes beyond what insurance pay can motivate people to fight back...

There are so many things wrong in how the doctor behaved it is mind-boggling and a big red flag. Fighting angry and stupid people in court is best avoided but one does not always have a choice.

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