Patient blogs: A HIPAA nightmare?

Dr. Wes on the rise of patient blogs and what it means for HIPAA:

Patient blogs are now the rage at local hospitals here in Chicago, detailing play-by-play accounts of health care delivery and histories on patients themselves. You see, patients aren’t covered by HIPAA. They can say what ever they want about themselves. But sometimes the patient isn’t the one posting on the patient’s blog, family members were, dutifully updating the daily progress of their loved one to the world . . .

. . . So in the future, if doctors or insurers get accused of violating the HIPAA provisions, they’ll just look stupid and say, “Hey, I just read what I know about him on his patient blog!”