Is This Allowed in a Health Care Facility? Legal?

Published July 11, 2010

Question by cw: Is this allowed in a health care facility? Legal?
my brother went into a drug/ alcohol treatment center for an evaluation and found out that someone there looked up his criminal background, he wasn;t in any legal issue at the time.Are they allowed to do this? I know if your a pt at any hospital/ dr.office this is illegal. Hippa privacy issue

Best answer:

Answer by Tracey Seth
HIPAA has nothing to do with it. All HIPAA regulates is the transfering of medical information from one entitiy to another. It has nothing to do with criminal records.

Criminal records are public information and if your brother was being admitted to a drug alcohol treatment center, they want a criminal background check to see what kind of danger he might be to the other patients, especially if they also treat minors.

Add your own answer in the comments!