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Comment by _t0du | Hacker News Reader

My shoulder surgeon gave my name, phone number and a vivid description of the circumstances that arose to warrant my shoulder surgery to a woman she thought I'd be a good match with. She even told the woman to "not tell anyone because this is a huge violation."

It goes both ways.

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Oh, don't misunderstand me. Their understanding is alllllll full of false negatives and false positives, absolutely.

But I was specifically referring, as a pain point, to how often offices use HIPAA as an excuse to not do things patients want them to do.

I'm a physician that has worked in health policy. I get very, very volubly angry when a front desk puts me off with "that's a HIPAA violation" and it isn't. It's "we don't want to be bothered doing things that convenience the patient, and here's an excuse that sounds like it's out of our hands."

When they share information they're not supposed to, it's often - not always, but often - at least with the underlying intention of doing right by the patient, as opposed to just trying to get rid of them.

C'mon, you can't tell that story without sharing how you got your shoulder injury and whether it actually ended up being a good match.

yeah, the circumstances seem like an integral part of the story, were they helping a distressed pregnant elephant give birth?

Maybe lifting a lot of weight, or got injured while playing in a major sporting event?

Just long term impingement from powerlifting. We went on a date, it was awful. I paid and never called her again.

What kind of match? Romantic match?

What was your reaction when a stranger called you for a date?

A date, yeah. I thought it was weird, but figured if this surgeon risked her professional career to hook the two of us up, I should see what happens. The date was terrible.

Hope the surgeon has accident insurance!

>My shoulder surgeon gave my name, phone number and a vivid description of the circumstances that arose to warrant my shoulder surgery to a woman she thought I'd be a good match with.

So were you a good match or what?

How did you find out?!

The girl told me.

A match for what? Was she donating her spare shoulder?

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