Doc: Showing Medical Form To Hourly Publix Clerk Is “Absurd.”
BY: STAFF REPORT | BocaNewsNow.com
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2021 MetroDesk Media, LLC) (News App readers click here for full access) — The form just released by the Florida Department of Health for the “extremely vulnerable” to receive the COVID-19 vaccine may be a blatant violation of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
The act is defined on the HHS website as “to assure that individuals’ health information is properly protected..,”something the form doesn’t do. Several healthcare providers contacting BocaNewsNow.com say that the DeSantis administration could have required doctors to write a prescription. But to ask them to fill out a form with personal information to give to an hourly supermarket employee at a “shot check-in counter” is a problem.
“This is the latest absurd thing by an administration that has no idea what it’s doing,” said a Palm Beach County healthcare worker. “(Gov.) DeSantis shouldn’t be handling healthcare. Why should someone have to reveal their medical vulnerability to a part time hourly clerk checking-in people at Publix?”
“It’s a meaningless form,” said another medical worker in Boca Raton. “Find me one person who doesn’t have a friend or family member in Boca or Delray who is a doctor willing to sign this. This is not well thought out.”
The form requires a doctor’s license number, telephone number, email address and other information. It requires a doctor to assert that he or she has a relationship with the patient and confirms that patient is “extremely” vulnerable.
Ironically, using the “vulnerability form” may be the most cumbersome way to receive a shot. Most area pharmacies and supermarkets administering the COVID-19 vaccine say they are not asking for proof of employment for those claiming to work in education.
The CVS website, as of 3:10 p.m. doesn’t even offer “vulnerable” as an option for Florida. Instead, these are the options presented on the CVS website:
We are providing the form for those wishing to download it. Reading in a news app? Click here to access the form.
