need guidance, please help!

[tomplatz]

For anyone who's been in for awhile or might KNOW for certain and not just guess, please.

Am a 3rd year student in HPSP. An administrator in my command office is asking for encounter notes from a civilian psychiatrist I saw my first year to cope with a family crisis. No longer see the pshrink nor need meds.

Problem: I politely declined to submit this and offered to submit it directly to the requesting military physician or my CO and no one else. To me this is absolutely private information that a clerk does not need to see. She is going ballistic threatening to have me booted out of the program.

1. Is it that easy to get booted?
2. Does the military have the authority to even demand a civilian doc's notes? I thought we had something called HIPAA.
3. Any suggestions for recourse? I'm going to go to my CO, but I want to have my ducks in a row first.

Thanks y'all.

Frigging civilians, huh?

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[denali]

Go directly to the CO. The only authority that clerk has is what is delegated to him/her by the CO and you are well within your rights to deal with the CO directly in this case. He or she should be able to deal reasonably with you and your concerns without having to threaten you. Make sure you understand what they want the records for, what they intend to do with the records, and who will have access to them.

 

[militarymd]

Originally posted by tomplatz
For anyone who's been in for awhile or might KNOW for certain and not just guess, please.

Am a 3rd year student in HPSP. An administrator in my command office is asking for encounter notes from a civilian psychiatrist I saw my first year to cope with a family crisis. No longer see the pshrink nor need meds.

Problem: I politely declined to submit this and offered to submit it directly to the requesting military physician or my CO and no one else. To me this is absolutely private information that a clerk does not need to see. She is going ballistic threatening to have me booted out of the program.

1. Is it that easy to get booted?
2. Does the military have the authority to even demand a civilian doc's notes? I thought we had something called HIPAA.
3. Any suggestions for recourse? I'm going to go to my CO, but I want to have my ducks in a row first.

Thanks y'all.

Frigging civilians, huh?

Your CO can have access to just about anything he/she wants. That's how it works in the military......like forcing you to take immunizations that you don't want...etc...

And no, it is not that easy to throw you out...don't worry....they'll threaten you with a lot more things first before they can throw you out.

You do have the right to see the CO to find out what exactly he wants, but you will have to give in when he tells you to your face.

 

[iwakuni_doc]

First off, I assume you must have initially told someone in your command about your seeing a psychiatrist..? Not always a good move - while honesty & disclosure are important, know that it can have consequences on your career.

HIPAA & patient confidentiality still exists within the military setting...not just anyone in your chain of command (or some GS administrator) can call up & demand to see your records. Your commanding officer is the only person who has the authority to see your medical records with/without your approval.

I would recommend going directly to your CO & speaking with him/her regarding this...

 

[tomplatz]

thanks guys/gals. I spoke with my CO and she was pretty pissed off that I put up any resistance to this. She told me again that it was required and threatened to have my pay withheld until this was resolved. bitch.

as far as being honest in the first place, yeah I guess it might've been dumb. i didn't want to get caught lying and counted on the military to appreciate that some. guess I bought into the whole "officer 24/7" thing a little too much. gullible I suppose.

anyways, seeing a pshrink for a couple months for help to get through a time of crisis (2 deaths in the family in a week) isn't a big deal to my way of thinking. hopefully my command sees it that way too. sheesh.