A Massachusetts woman is drawing online attention over someone allegedly breaking into her car at work, but her boss refuses to let her divulge the criminal’s name to the police. She knows the criminal personally by name because they’re a patient at the medical facility where she works. However, since she claims the police and her company are of no help, she’s turned to Reddit for advice with a post that’s garnered thousands of views.
In her post on r/legaladvice, draftysundress states she has video evidence of the medical patient who broke into her car, but her employer told her not to tell the police any names because “they’re protected by HIPAA and other compliance regulations.” She understandably claims that’s not necessary, but was still told she needed a warrant or subpoena first before she could expose the criminal’s name. Over a hundred Redditors shared suggestions while several thousand reacted to the post.
“It seems like no justice will be served unless I divulge the name and instantly lose my job for revealing the identity of a patient,” she sighed, worried that she would be fired if she didn’t listen to her boss. Users claiming to work in healthcare collectively agree that there are no legal restrictions for her to tell the police who broke into her car. “I work at a hospital… we call the cops on patients all the time,” remarked one commenter.
Reddit Argues That Divulging the Name Won’t Violate HIPAA, But the Employee Still Could Get Fired
On the flip side, people warned her that her employer could fire her on the spot if she went against orders. “Reporting this theft doesn’t violate HIPAA,” explains one Redditor. “But they [the employer] almost certainly can terminate your employment for doing so.”
Such comments would be correct, as the Department of Health & Human Services states that it’s allowed to divulge a name in response to “a request for PHI for purposes of identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person,” just as long as nothing too personal is disclosed, like DNA samples. That said, the victim who is of the “covered entity’s workforce” can report said information to law enforcement.
However, there might be complications, as one commenter pointed out that the woman’s medical facility might not be “a covered entity under federal healthcare services regulations.” This is because she revealed her facility handles drugs for medical and recreational use.
There is a chance things might end in her favor, as she claimed she’s already turned over the video evidence to the police. Now, it’s just a matter of time and effort before the authorities identify the thief, but divulging a name could speed up the process.
