Public health mileage concerns cut both ways

In discussion before the Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors last week, Hacker Nelson representative Steve Samec advised Public Health to log towns of departure and arrival when turning in staff mileage claims even though staff may visit several locations a day.Samec held up a mileage form of several numbers summed with no other written explanation. “This is just a bunch of numbers on a sheet … All we’re asking for is to put down, for example, from Ionia to Nashua,” Samec said.Director Kathy Babcock voiced concern that listing specific addresses would put her department in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, under which addresses are “protected health information.”Assistant Public Health Director Lisa Welter with home health said a staffer may visit 10 houses a day.“All we’re asking for is what town,” Samec said.Mileage forms have to have a ‘to’ and ‘from,’ and departments have not been doing that, Auditor Joan Knoll said in follow-up.— For more on this story, see the Aug. 21 New Hampton Tribune.