That's the agency charged with enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA. When the floor opened for questions, McCann was the first to raise his hand. C.W. Bill Young Department Of Veterans Affairs Medical "Complaints that VA receives from whistleblowers about inappropriate access to their health records are thoroughly investigated and appropriate actions are taken where warranted," said the VA. We process mailed or faxed requests within 10-14 days. Not all concern medical treatment; some involve data on benefits and compensation. Brandon Coleman, an addiction therapist for the Phoenix VA Health Care System, filed a privacy complaint after a social worker accessed his medical file in 2014. You can search for information about privacy breaches with ProPublica's online tool. Two years later, a VA employee who worked at the same facility in Biloxi committed suicide and, again, several co-workers inappropriately snooped in the medical records. Mass-casualty exercise tests Bay Pines VAs readiness - VA News WebKate Caccamo - Medical Records Clerk - BAY PINES AFFECTATION HOSPITAL | LinkedIn What to bring A completed and signatures Individuals Request With a Imitate of Their Your Mail the signed, completed form to our ROI office. The site is secure. For example, in September 2011, after a veteran committed suicide on the grounds of a VA facility in Biloxi, Miss., more than 40 employees accessed his medical records. Request Your Medical Records - VA Sunshine Healthcare 10000 Bay Pines Boulevard. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. (Patients can complain to the VA, the Office for Civil Rights or both.). Bay Pines VA Healthcare System Shortly after he came forward in December 2014 to the Office of Special Counsel, a federal office that handles whistleblower allegations for the VA, Coleman was placed on administrative leave for allegedly threatening other employees. Request Your Medical Records - VA Sunshine Healthcare Network Bill Young VA Medical Center suspected that his ex-girlfriend, a nurse at the facility, accessed his Social Security number from his confidential medical files in order to change his AT&T account information. In 220 cases, the VA submitted a corrective-action plan or received "technical assistance" on how to comply with the law. "It's just one more area in which the VA fails to operate in a way that's worthy of our veterans," said Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, a frequent critic of the VA who serves on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. St. Petersburg Regional Office Home - VA.gov | Veterans Affairs "I think we have a pretty good track record of getting people to report when they make a mistake or when they observe something happening," he said. WebThis page provides information for Bay Pines National Cemetery. In fact, from 2011 to 2014, the number of reports per year nearly doubled, from 1,547 to 3,054. ", The problems were noted both within the VA's internal data and in letters sent by the Office for Civil Rights to the VA when it closed its complaint investigations. Madison Kirkman/AP Images for ProPublica WebVA Bay Pines Healthcare System locations, address, hours of operations, and health care services provided. If you change your mind and want to share your health information, youll need to submit VA Form 10-10163 (Request for and Permission to Participate in Sharing Protected Health Information). In response, the VA provided training and a reminder about privacy laws and sent the veteran's family a letter informing them of the violation. The C.W. If youre usingVA Form 10-5345a, check the CD-ROM or Other box (and write in DVD). An official website of the United States government. The VA's internal records indicate that its incident response team found that Mitchell accessed at least 15 patients' charts without "proper authorization." VA Bay Pines health care Bradenton VA Clinic Bradenton VA Clinic Our outpatient clinic provides primary care and specialty health services, including mental She had never treated me and had nothing to do with my medical care.". The number of reported incidents has increased, the data show. But even unintended errors can cause grief, particularly in the case of mistaken identities. "I realized right away that she had no right to be in there. You can get the records of a deceased patient if you have: Yes. office. This will update your information across several VA benefits and services. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs | 810 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington DC 20420. Nationwide PIV Card Office Locations - Office of Operations, There were several cases of widows who received letters extending sympathy for the death of unrelated veterans and outlining survivor compensation and burial benefits for those veterans. hide caption. Afterward, many co-workers who had no direct involvement in his medical care seemed to know about his attempt and asked how he was doing. "They come up with ways to try to discredit you or say you are unfit for duty," said Coleman, who is still on leave nearly a year later. You dont need to submit form 10-10164. "It's not a violation to provide that information to your congressman to request an investigation into inappropriate behavior," said Mitchell, who believes that many whistleblowers are investigated for merely trying to bring attention to flaws in the system. Bay Pines VA Medical Center Medical records office Get copies of your VA medical records online, by mail or fax, or in person at our VA Bay Pines health care Release of Information office. Last updated May 1, 2023 Help ProPublica investigate by filling out a short questionnaire. While on leave, he discovered that yet another administrative officer at the VA, who also was not involved with his medical care, had accessed his health files after he filed his complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. Bill Young Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Update your VA health benefits information. The https:// ensures that you're connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and sent securely. Release of Information Your Veteran Health Identification Card (VHIC), Any POA paperwork or will showing you have a legal right to their record. You can also bring it with you or ask for this form when you visit us. We can also help you update your records. When Anthony McCann opened a thick manila envelope from the Department of Veterans Affairs last year, he expected to find his own medical records inside. "A better 'lock' on the system would potentially eliminate, and certainly reduce, this problem.". (ProPublica's new tool, HIPAA Helper, allows you to read reports on these incidents and search by facility.). The privacy incident reports also reveal more systemic issues across the VA: Employees repeatedly accessed the medical records of patients not under their care, from co-workers to suicidal vets to whistleblowers. In an interview Tuesday, a VA official said the department considers patient privacy a top priority and that it fares well in comparison with health providers and insurers in the private sector, some of which have been targets of cyberattacks this year. Bill Young VA Medical Center in Bay Pines, Fla., had more privacy reports than any other facility, with 112 incidents. VA Bay Pines Healthcare System locations, address, hours of A patient treated at the West Virginia VA Medical Center had his medical records impermissibly accessed by co-workers of his wife. Yes, we provide all available images on DVD. He requested a list of everyone who had looked at his file, which revealed that his ex-girlfriend had accessed it 55 times. "We take any loss of data very seriously," said John Oswalt, the VA's associate deputy assistant secretary for privacy and records management. Apply for additionally direct the VA benefits and services youve attained than adenine Veteran, Servicemember, or We can help you get copies of your VA medical records. 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wed. 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thu. "I don't trust them," McCann told ProPublica. We don't charge any fees to send copies directly to health care providers. VA addiction therapist Brandon Coleman, now on administrative leave, testified about widespread problems with privacy breaches before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs in September. To request a copy of your VA medical records by mail or fax, send a signed and completed VA Form 10-5345a to our Release of Information office. C.W. A VA employee at C.W. C.W. Privacy Violations Rising At Veterans Affairs Medical Facilities Bay Pines, FL 33744-8200. Mitchell submitted a formal report through the senator's office, hoping that a congressional push would secure a review by the VA's inspector general. "They don't do what they say they're going to do.". Bay Pines VA Medical Center is located in Bay Pines, Pinellas County, Florida. VA Bay Pines health care Our main campus provides primary care and specialty health services, including cardiology, foot care (podiatry), mental health care, treatment for spinal cord injuries, If you have aMy HealtheVet Premium account, you can also view or download many kinds of radiology images online. For information about Bay Pines VAs MOVE! His records were then used against him during divorce proceedings, according to a May 2013 letter from the Office for Civil Rights. Has your medical privacy been compromised? According to the Office for Civil Rights investigation letter from November 2012, the ex-girlfriend was suspended for 10 days and given training, and the incident was documented in her employment record. ", In its statement, the VA told ProPublica that it will not tolerate any retaliation "against those who raise issues which may enable VA to better serve Veterans.". Lerner expressed concern that VA employees are accessing whistleblower medical records to discredit their claims. Note:If you had revoked your permission to share, before September 30, 2019, your opt out status will stay active. Employees and contractors at VA medical centers, clinics, pharmacies and benefit centers commit thousands of privacy violations each year and have racked up more than 10,000 such incidents since 2011, a ProPublica analysis of VA data shows. She emphasized that the VA should consider "system-wide corrective action" to better protect whistleblowers. WebThe main telephone number for our Bradenton VA Clinic has been restored. WebVeterans will receive up to 12 months of tuition and fees and a monthly housing allowance based on Post-9/11 GI Bill rates. Get copies of your VA medical records online, by mail or fax, or You can get another person's medical records if youre listed as having Power of Attorney (POA) or youre the patients next of kin. However, shortly after she submitted her request, she was placed on administrative leave and investigated for alleged privacy violations: Her superiors told her that she had violated privacy laws by accessing the records of the suicidal veterans she alleged had not received adequate care. The VA runs the largest integrated health care system in the nation, with 150 hospitals and hundreds of clinics that collectively serve around 9 million patients annually. program, please email chelsey.armendinger@va.gov or call 727-398-6661, ext. Medical Records Office | VA Bay Pines Health Care | Veterans VA Bay Pines Health Care | Veterans Affairs - VA.gov Home Another VA whistleblower, Dr. Katherine Mitchell, was inappropriately investigated for a privacy violation after she came forward with allegations of patient harm. Please use WebHow to retain information from VA medical records. Blumenthal has proposed a bill, called the VA Patient Protection Act, which, among other things, would punish VA supervisors or employees who retaliate against whistleblowers. "There is zero accountability.". Call or visit one of our release of information offices. This story is part of a yearlong examination into how secure medical privacy is. That same kind of attitude ought to exist at the VA.". Directions. Sat. The civil rights office has cited the VA more frequently than any other health provider in the nation, yet it has not sanctioned the VA or publicly identified it as the top HIPAA violator. The VA's Sunshine Healthcare Network, which includes Florida, Puerto Rico and southern Georgia, has had more privacy incidents than any other region, with at least 370 over the past five years, according to ProPublica's analysis. 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tue. "I got 256 pages of another person's extremely confidential, extremely explicit mental health records," he said, waving the documents in his hands, an exchange captured by local media. We have a vested interest in protecting the data personally, too. Coleman said he was horrified and filed a complaint with the privacy officer at the Phoenix VA. Instead, he found over 250 pages of deeply revealing personal information on another veteran's mental health. 14662. Bill Young VA Medical Center attempted suicide. When I visit a hospital, you can sense that they are very cautious about what I see and what I hear when it involves a patient. Following an investigation, the VA's incident response team found that an employee had indeed inappropriately accessed the veteran's medical records "out of curiosity. Medical Records Office | VA Bay Pines Health Care | Veterans Medical Records Office | VA Bay Pines Health Care | Veterans "Quite simply, it is too easy right now for a mischief-minded employee to enter the medical record system and access information on his or her co-workers," Lerner wrote in her written testimony. "This is a problem that is widespread throughout the VA," said Brandon Coleman, a VA whistleblower who testified before the Senate that his private medical records were inappropriately accessed by a co-worker. Address. This time, after failing to make contact with the other veteran on his own, McCann took the documents to a town hall meeting held by the director of the VA's Tennessee Valley Healthcare System. Mental health care Medical Records Office | VA Tampa Health Care | Veterans I have visited each and every one of them. VA employees who have access to medical records are only supposed to access the minimum necessary in order to perform their jobs. Coleman, an addiction therapist for the Phoenix VA Health Care System who is on administrative leave, said a social worker mentioned during a meeting in October 2014 that she had accidentally accessed his medical file a few months earlier. Bill Young VA Medical Center (Bay Pines, FL) James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital In the past, he informed the VA, then threw away the misdirected documents. Some VA employees have used their access to medical records as a weapon in disputes or for personal gain, incident reports show. at our Phone Directory - VA Sunshine Healthcare Network Learn how we're making it easier for you to get health care through VA facilities, mobile health clinics, virtual telehealth, and community care providers. VA facilities were the subject of more than 300 privacy complaints to the Office for Civil Rights from 2011 to 2014. Since 1933, Bay Pines VA Healthcare System has been improving the health of the men and women who have so proudly served our nation. You can also read other stories in our Policing Patient Privacy series. Wealth can help you get copies of your VA medical records. VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center - 24/7 Virtual Urgent Care - VA "It had everything about him, and I could have done anything with it," McCann said in an interview. When an official asked for the documents back, McCann refused, doubting the VA's ability to safeguard the material or make sure it ended up in the right hands. James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital - VA Sunshine Healthcare Network In January 2015, a veteran who works at C.W. The .gov means its official. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site. "Over a third of our employees are veterans. "There's 127 community hospitals in Kansas. This program is voluntary, and you can choose not to share your information (opt out of sharing). This is a Veterans Administration Hospital with an unknown TPS quality score. On Aug. 2, a mass-casualty exercise tested Bay Pines VAs readiness. "The management uses HIPAA rules inappropriately to prevent whistleblowers from speaking up," said Mitchell, who received the Office of Special Counsel's Public Servant award the year after her allegations. Madison Kirkman/AP Images for ProPublica Main Hospital Hours Mon. But a recent VA accountability review found that Mitchell's actions were indeed protected because she was acting as a whistleblower, and her placement on leave was deemed to be retaliatory. WebThe VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center is a service of the VA Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8) - providing 24/7, virtual care and support to Veterans enrolled for VA Health Care in Download Your Own VA Medical Records; Order Hearing Aids; Batteries (for Hearing Aids & Other Devices) V HAWIMPIVOffice@va.gov: Florida: Bay Pines: Bay hide caption. Mitchell, a physician who has worked at the VA for over 16 years, contacted the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 2013, alleging that the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix didn't provide adequate care for its suicidal veterans and that the hospital statistically manipulated its patient wait list. WebGet the records in person. "If they don't report the cases, no one will investigate.". A 2013 investigation by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review found that privacy violations were rampant within the VA, affecting tens of thousands of veterans. VA addiction therapist Brandon Coleman, now on administrative leave, testified about widespread problems with privacy breaches before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs in September. The breaches range from inadvertent mistakes, such as sending documents or prescriptions to the wrong people, to employees' intentional snooping and theft of data. Find out how to change your address and other information in your VA.gov profile. If youre making the request in person, you can tell us what format you would like. Get your (ProPublica's new tool, HIPAA Helper, A Premium account is one where youve gone through extra identity authentication. Apply for a printed Veteran ID card, get your VA benefit letters and military service records, and learn how to apply for a discharge upgrade. Update your personal, financial, or insurance information with VA Form 10-10EZR. Fill out, sign, and date VA Form 10-10164 (Opt Out of Sharing Protected Health Information). 250 pages of deeply revealing personal information, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Repeat Violators Of Health Privacy Laws Often Go Unpunished, more than 40 employees accessed his medical records, inappropriately snooped in the medical records, Office of Special Counsel's Public Servant award. To request Your Medical Records, follow the link below for more information. Call or visiting ne of our release concerning Bay Pines VA Healthcare System - VA Sunshine Healthcare Network Brandon Coleman, an addiction therapist for the Phoenix VA Health Care System, filed a privacy complaint after a social worker accessed his medical file in 2014. Bill Young VA Medical Center in Bay Pines, Fla., had more privacy reports than any other facility, with 112 incidents. Two senators told ProPublica they found the volume of privacy breaches involving the VA to be deeply troubling. It wasn't the first time McCann had received another veteran's medical records. WebMain phone: 727-398-6661 VA health connect: 877-741-3400 Mental health care: 727-398-6661 x15619 See all locations Manage your health online Refill and track your prescriptions Apply for and manage the VA benefits the services youve earned as a Veteran, Servicemember, or family memberlike health Responsibility to act on privacy violations falls both to the VA itself and to the Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services. Main phone: 727-398-6661. ", The VA also released a written statement that said, in part, "Inappropriate access of patient health records, either during or post treatment, is absolutely unacceptable and in violation of privacy laws and regulations, VA policies and procedures, and our principles.". We can also help you update your records. (See our previous story.). Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said he too is concerned about this. in person VA health connect: 877-741-3400. Medical Records Office | VA Bay Pines Health Care If you'd favorite to reach the clinic, please dial 941-721-0649 real yours need be connected. Moran said he would support requiring the VA to report all privacy incidents to Congress. We The C.W. For privacy reasons, we cant accept requests for medical records by email. Many VA facilities and regional networks are chronic offenders, logging dozens of violations year after year. Sign in to view, organize, and share your VA medical records and other personal health information. The experiences of Coleman and Mitchell were reflected in recent testimony from Carolyn Lerner, who heads the Office of Special Counsel. The VA's Oswalt said the increase is less a result of a growing problem and more an indication that the VA has been successful in encouraging employees to report potential breaches. Here's how it responded. The VA provides monthly reports to Congress on data breaches and posts them on its website, but these reports don't contain all of the incidents provided to ProPublica under the Freedom of Information Act. ProPublica asked for the data provided to the newspaper, as well as all privacy violations since then. 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A completed and signed Individuals Request For a Copy of Their Own Health Information (VA Form 10-5345a). "If we were out there punishing people for human error, I think you would see the number of reported incidents go down, but that doesn't serve the needs of the veteran.". As the VA's overall problems have mounted in the past couple of years including long waits for care some whistleblowers contend that HIPAA has been used as a sword against them. To learn more about VRRAP and how to apply for the "The VA still has a significant way to go in restoring trust and credibility," he added, "and part of that task is to take sufficient disciplinary action against wrongdoers so as to deter them and reassure all veterans that it has a very strict standard of accountability. Please ask at the Register for care office, and they will provide you documentation of your VA coverage. "Nothing is more devastating and unconscionable than the misuse of power to subjugate legitimate complaints," he said in an interview. VA Bay Pines Health Care | Veterans Affairs - VA.gov Under HIPAA, medical providers are responsible for keeping patients' medical information confidential. VA Bay Pines Health Care | Veterans Affairs - VA.gov Some have reported being accused of violating HIPAA for collecting material to inform members of Congress about care problems at the VA. Others say their own medical records were looked at by co-workers and officials without their consent. The Veterans Health Information Exchange (VHIE) program lets us electronically share your health information with health care providers who treat you, includingparticipating non-VAprovidersif you receive care outside of VA. Bay Pines National Cemetery - National Cemetery Administration The majority of the VA privacy incidents appear to be inadvertent ones --medical records left in waiting rooms or faxed to the wrong recipient, for example. Releasing a patient's treatment information without consent is illegal. Access your VA medical records online. Mental health care: 727

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