The office manager, Rebecca, at this office took copies of mine and another patients medical records. She kept them in her posession for 3 months, at that time she threw the copies of our medical records at the other patient along with a nasty comment.
This office manager, Rebecca Gianfortune, does not have, and never will have, a release signed by me authorizing her to give copies of my medical records to anyone, other than my attorney. She never had a legitimate reason, nor a signed, valid release authorizing her to keep copies of my medical, financial, and insurance information. She certainly did not have a valid, signed release authorizing her to give copies of my private, and protected information to the other patient. I thank heaven the other patient contacted me, and gave me the copies of my records.
Although Vince Hoffart was informed of his officemanagers conduct, he has never reported this to the appropriate state and federal agencies that oversee medical privacy rights. He has also never sent me a notification of the fact that my medical records were inappropriately accessed, taken by his office manager, and disclosed to another patient.
I find his conduct very offensive. His office managers conduct very well could have affected my insurance claim, and the legal process they were being used for. I find his actions to be extremely unethical as he has known his office manager has done this before, and has admitted this to the other patient. His actions are extremely unprofessional in that he refuses to comply with all state and federal laws regarding this.
I find his conduct at some of my appointments to be very unprofessional. He would often direct me to move to his AO table so he could "tap that atlas". As he is old enough to be my father, this was creepy to say the least. He also joked about being able to see where some of his patients had piercings- normally covered by clothing and very private in nature. He even uses this "tap that atlas" as a web address. Disgusting!
I had been a patient at Hoffart Chiropractic since 2012. I had been very happy with how I had been treated at this office. Everyone had been very friendly- very much an environment where you were more than just a patient- you were part of the "family". That all changed last fall.
I had just finished my appointment, paid, and was going to schedule another appointment. Rebecca reached behind her and grabbed a large stack of loose papers. She threw them down on the counter in front of me and made a very rude comment about how my attoenry could get anything else he needed from me. She had had those copies for 90 days.
I left, mortified, and drove home. When I got home, I looked at the papers and discovered that they were copies of both mine and my daughters medical records for the car accident we had been being treated for. There were over 200 pages of our personal health information, including our names, addresses, phone numbers, work info, health insurance info, car insurance info, and all of our medical notes.
I stopped going into this office until the next spring when the pain was too much to just ignore. I did start addressng this and some other issues with Rebecca with Dr. Hoffart. He seemed shocked, but in two different emails, admitted she had done similar things in the past.
I had decided to leave his practice, and tried twice to get copies of my xrays to take to another office. Both times, Rebecca altered the records request form to state "copies of all treatment notes, all xrays, and billing" This was NOT what I had requested, not even close. This really concerned me as it seems she really wants to dig through my medical records.
There was a ton of going back and forth with Vince over this issue. My expectations were that he would immediately follow both HIPAA and CMIA and make sure our medical records were protected from a rogue, apprently very angry employee. Given that she had no legal right to have copies of mine and my daughters records, had kept them hidden for 90 days, abused me with them, and then illegally disclosed protected health information to people who did not have authorization to have them- I fully expected her to have her employment terminated from Hoffart Chiropractic.
What she did was an intentional act- one that occured for over 90 days! Had Dr. Hoffart taken this seriously and fired Rebecca, this matter would have been handled to my complete satisfaction. Instead, Vince Hoffart has refused to take any action other than "writing" Rebecca up.
I am beyond disgusted that he feels that he can ignore the law. My medical records are there, unprotected from an employee that has not hesitated to break multiple laws because she is ticked off about something. His excuse for not firing her was that it would cause him too much stress.
He should be more concerned with the stress that his patients feel over having their medical records stolen by his emplyee, and then thrown at them.
I have had to buy credit protectin, identity theft protection, as well as the huge expense of changing chiropractors- and losing a very trusted, and well liked chiropractor. Shame on this business for doing this, and even more shame for not taking the proper action to protect patients from Rebecca.
Hoffart Chiropractic Reviews
The office manager, Rebecca, at this office took copies of mine and another patients medical records. She kept them in her posession for 3 months, at that time she threw the copies of our medical records at the other patient along with a nasty comment.
This office manager, Rebecca Gianfortune, does not have, and never will have, a release signed by me authorizing her to give copies of my medical records to anyone, other than my attorney. She never had a legitimate reason, nor a signed, valid release authorizing her to keep copies of my medical, financial, and insurance information. She certainly did not have a valid, signed release authorizing her to give copies of my private, and protected information to the other patient. I thank heaven the other patient contacted me, and gave me the copies of my records.
Although Vince Hoffart was informed of his officemanagers conduct, he has never reported this to the appropriate state and federal agencies that oversee medical privacy rights. He has also never sent me a notification of the fact that my medical records were inappropriately accessed, taken by his office manager, and disclosed to another patient.
I find his conduct very offensive. His office managers conduct very well could have affected my insurance claim, and the legal process they were being used for. I find his actions to be extremely unethical as he has known his office manager has done this before, and has admitted this to the other patient. His actions are extremely unprofessional in that he refuses to comply with all state and federal laws regarding this.
I find his conduct at some of my appointments to be very unprofessional. He would often direct me to move to his AO table so he could "tap that atlas". As he is old enough to be my father, this was creepy to say the least. He also joked about being able to see where some of his patients had piercings- normally covered by clothing and very private in nature. He even uses this "tap that atlas" as a web address. Disgusting!
I had been a patient at Hoffart Chiropractic since 2012. I had been very happy with how I had been treated at this office. Everyone had been very friendly- very much an environment where you were more than just a patient- you were part of the "family". That all changed last fall.
I had just finished my appointment, paid, and was going to schedule another appointment. Rebecca reached behind her and grabbed a large stack of loose papers. She threw them down on the counter in front of me and made a very rude comment about how my attoenry could get anything else he needed from me. She had had those copies for 90 days.
I left, mortified, and drove home. When I got home, I looked at the papers and discovered that they were copies of both mine and my daughters medical records for the car accident we had been being treated for. There were over 200 pages of our personal health information, including our names, addresses, phone numbers, work info, health insurance info, car insurance info, and all of our medical notes.
I stopped going into this office until the next spring when the pain was too much to just ignore. I did start addressng this and some other issues with Rebecca with Dr. Hoffart. He seemed shocked, but in two different emails, admitted she had done similar things in the past.
I had decided to leave his practice, and tried twice to get copies of my xrays to take to another office. Both times, Rebecca altered the records request form to state "copies of all treatment notes, all xrays, and billing" This was NOT what I had requested, not even close. This really concerned me as it seems she really wants to dig through my medical records.
There was a ton of going back and forth with Vince over this issue. My expectations were that he would immediately follow both HIPAA and CMIA and make sure our medical records were protected from a rogue, apprently very angry employee. Given that she had no legal right to have copies of mine and my daughters records, had kept them hidden for 90 days, abused me with them, and then illegally disclosed protected health information to people who did not have authorization to have them- I fully expected her to have her employment terminated from Hoffart Chiropractic.
What she did was an intentional act- one that occured for over 90 days! Had Dr. Hoffart taken this seriously and fired Rebecca, this matter would have been handled to my complete satisfaction. Instead, Vince Hoffart has refused to take any action other than "writing" Rebecca up.
I am beyond disgusted that he feels that he can ignore the law. My medical records are there, unprotected from an employee that has not hesitated to break multiple laws because she is ticked off about something. His excuse for not firing her was that it would cause him too much stress.
He should be more concerned with the stress that his patients feel over having their medical records stolen by his emplyee, and then thrown at them.
I have had to buy credit protectin, identity theft protection, as well as the huge expense of changing chiropractors- and losing a very trusted, and well liked chiropractor. Shame on this business for doing this, and even more shame for not taking the proper action to protect patients from Rebecca.