Can a hospital legally disclose your appointments to their billing department?

My mother is very private and does not want people in the billing department to just be able to see her appointments. She does not deal with financial matters and the billing department should contact my father anyway. What rights does she have if any? She was told if she refused to sign the HIPAA paperwork they would refuse to treat her.
If they did not know she had an appointment then they would not know to bill her.
Appointments need to be disclosed to the billings department for obvious reasons. medical information is privileged, however the cost of an appointment as well as the account status of a patients is not. Accounts receivable also has to know the billing date (ie. the date of the appointment) in order to set their terms,
Does her desire for privacy extend to not wanting the services or is it just paying for them that is the problem?

The hospital has the right to be paid for its services. To bill for those services it must be able to say what the services were and when they were provided. If you mother does not want to sign the documents to allow for billing, the hospital has the right to refuse service.

Tell her to stop whining and sign the forms.
If I understand you right, then how does you Mother think she is going to get billed? Some one is going to need to see the dates, times, etc. to be sure the bills are right. Your Mother needs to get over it and get on with her life as we all are treated like this and no one has any problems with it or from it.
The hospital has to provide that information to the billing department so that the insurance company can be billed for the care your mother received. She can't refuse to have that information provided to the billing department, unless she is going to pay cash at the time of treatment.
THE HIPAA LAW IS TO KEEP HER PRIVACY. NOT DISCLOSE HER PRIVACY.

I DO NOT THINK THEY CAN DISCLOSE HER APPTS TO YOUR FATHER BECAUSE THAT IS PART OF HER PRIVACY.

THE HIPPA LAW IS IN HER FAVOR


Answers:
For billing purposes and only billing purposes they have a right to know when your appointments are so they may bill the insurance or to bill the patient. If she has not signed a written statement stating they can contact your father, then they will not contact him because of the HIPPA laws. NO ONE CAN BE REFUSED TREATMENT FOR NOT SIGNING HIPPA FORMS! I work in a medical office and that would be against the Hippocratic oath they take as a doctor to refuse treatment. HIPPA laws are put there to protect your medical information and personal information from being used outside of medical treatment. If she was refused treatment because she refused to sign the HIPPA forms, you need to go higher up then the billing department and talk to the hospital's patient advocate worker or the Doctor in charge of the practice.