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Published Wednesday, December 8, 2004
 

First Health Care recently filed a lawsuit against IU alleging the University is withholding worker's compensation claims they are required to disclose by law.

After the health care company lost a bids race to Bloomington Hospital for IU's worker's comp claims, they requested records from IU concerning how much money the University has given the hospital. First Health Care claims they want to ensure IU isn't squandering taxpayer's money.

Whether or not that is true is irrelevant. What does matter is why the University doesn't comply with First Health Care's requests. If IU has nothing to hide (i.e. if Bloomington Hospital isn't getting a blank check), then submitting to First Health Care's inquiry should be an easy task.

Employee privacy should not be an issue. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act clearly states those documents with both disclosable and nondisclosable information need to be handed over to the inquiring party with privacy-sensitive information redacted. That means all the University has to do is black out names, addresses, phone numbers and other personal information before handing over the original worker's comp claims. First Health Care even offered to provide the University with a redacting form, a sort of transparent sheet to place over the claims that would automatically conceal personal information.

We feel the University is bending the law by hiding behind HIPAA. Maintaining employee privacy is an important practice. Using a federal law to evade compliance with another law is an important practice to be avoided.