Without your consent – or even your knowledge – your sensitive medical records may be in the hands of federal investigators if your provider is being investigated for fraud.
As a recent example: Kevin Krause reports that federal investigators seized patient records from businesses owned by Larry Washington in Texas:
Federal agents raided his business, Mind Spa, in September and seized numerous documents, including patient files and a list with the contact information of numerous Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center employees.
Washington, 62, a licensed counselor, has not been charged with a crime. But the search warrant said he is being investigated for health care fraud. Mind Spa, which also is known as Solutions Health & Rehabilitation, provides pain management and counseling to injured federal workers.
[…]
The federal search warrant also sought records related to a Richardson mental health treatment clinic where Washington used to work.
Read more on Dallas News.
So how many federal investigators have looked at your sensitive medical records? How long will they hang on to them for, and what will happen when their investigation is concluded?
And if you needed to access your records or wished to transfer them to another doctor or provider, how could you go about doing that?
Federal investigations of fraud are justified and important, but how are they securing patient files, how are they determining access to those files, and how can patients get their records if they need them? Would you even know whom to ask?