Confidentiality Archives - The Recovery Cartel

January 25 2020

“I’m On the HIPPA Police Most Wanted List”

I have never, and I will never, utter the phrase: “I can not confirm nor deny if your loved one is in our program….”.

FORTUNATELY, I THINK MANY PROVIDERS AGREE AND AVOID THAT STANDARD MANTRA.

But, it is taught at confidentiality and “ethics” trainings on a regular basis.

As if it’s the 11th Commandment.

THOU SHALT NOT CONFIRM NOR DENY WITHOUT RELEASE OF INFORMATION.

And there certainly are providers who hear that silly stuff and then insist on using the “not confirm nor deny” mantra.

I won’t blow up anyone’s confidentiality.

But I won’t talk to the family member on the other end of the phone like they are the enemy trying to extract information.

I won’t robotically repeat some arbitrary phrase. A phrase conjured up by some lawyer or some committee.

Can you picture that process. How much time and money was spent on coming up with “I can not confirm nor deny….”?

Talk to people as if they are a fellow human being. Not as if they are a potential lawsuit.

There is a lot of stupid shit taught in “counseling school” and “ethics training”.

Recovery support services do not need to blindly follow such de-humanizing and stigmatizing concepts.

Picture yourself as a parent. You haven’t seen your child for 2-3 weeks.

They are on a run and you are just waiting to find out what happened.

Minutes turn to hours. Hours to days. It’s an ever-present fear.

You hear through the grapevine that your son landed at the local detox. Relieved, but anxious, you just want verification.

You call the unit and the person on the other end says: “I can not confirm nor deny if your child is here”….. again you ask…

You say…I don’t want to know any details. Just that he’s alive.

The person on the other end has just completed mandatory ethics training.

They repeat. “Sir, I can not confirm nor deny if your child is here”….

Good Lord. It’s like you are calling Guantánamo Bay to get info on the whereabouts of an ISIS terrorist.

Don’t give them information without a release. But talk normal. Be a person. Not a HIPPA HERO ….

HOLD UP/STOP RIGHT HERE: I know the official “recovery movement” talking points include “protect HIPPA”.

I don’t want to get my membership revoked. So for the record, I’m not saying HIPPA/confidentiality laws should be changed.

Not yet anyway. I don’t know enough about that situation. I try not to talk about things I don’t fully understand.

I’m talking about this now based on recurring feedback from our parent group.

If I look closely at the proposed changes that were thrown around and I think, HIPPA should be blown up.

I’m gonna run my mouth with or without the support of the “recovery movement tribe”.

This topic does provoke larger questions as well….such as:

Why is the “recovery movement” hell bent on becoming the treatment system’s little unappreciated brother?

Are y’all doing something new? Or just a repackaged version of the long standing clinical practices?

If you want to run a treatment center. Get licensed and accredited.

Hire some social workers. And start not confirming and not denying like an over-compliant regulators dream.

It would be a much easier way to get your program started….way easier to financially sustain things.