Josh & Jase Has Medical Records Illegally Accessed During Michigan Hospital Stay

Josh & Jase-mania dominated much of Michigan in January while the British influencer duo made their way around the state. Their genuine enthusiasm for the state and its smaller towns led people to make Facebook groups attempting to track them on their adventures, guessing where they'd go next based on their posts. Colleges, news stations, even the Detroit Lions got in on the fun of these two's quest.

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The way people reacted to this entire three-week saga would lead you to think these guys rivaled Justin Bieber during the Bieber Fever era, and not just two dudes visiting a state. It was all fun and games until someone got hurt (naturally), and that's when the J&J-Mania went too far.

In a recent post to his side profile, Josh (@Josh From England) revealed that someone took things way too far, illegally accessing his private health records while he was in the hospital.

Josh's Boyne Mountain Injury

While Josh and Jase were at Boyne Mountain, Jase woke up in immense pain, unable to move. He was put on a gurney and rushed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a ligament tear and a bulging disc around his spine.

Read More: Why Josh and Jase Came to Michigan in the Winter

It was a pretty serious and scary moment for them, leading them to contemplate ending their trip early. But after a day of rest and some pain meds, they continued their trip. While the hospital got him upright and pain-free, it turns out their experience there was not all it was cracked up to be.

A Privacy Breach and Multiple HIPAA Violations

Josh has shared that while he was getting treatment and in immense pain, the staff were coming in to take selfies with him. It got to the point that staff had to take their names off the notice board to "keep things lowkey."

The fact that there is people out there now who know my personal address, and I keep parts of my life very private, without my permission...it worries me. Please do not take advantage of your right of access to that information.

But the real invasion of privacy is the revelation that multiple hospital workers broke HIPAA laws and accessed his private information without a work-related reason. While he was injured, healthcare workers chose to treat him like a spectacle, an animal at the zoo, rather than a human in need. Safeguards, such as the letter notifying Josh of the transgression, are in place.

However, accessing patient information without cause is illegal, something hammered into staff from Day 1 as part of the Hippocratic Oath or the Nightingale Pledge. No word has been given about the punishment the workers faced, but in most cases, workers are terminated, and the violation is added to their professional record. 

It's a shame. People really know how to ruin a good thing by going too far. Hopefully, this doesn't ruin the duo's opinion of our state.