BEAUMONT - By Megan Dillard - Just days after a man tried to help a homeless person find a place to live, he's back on the street.
The "good Samaritan" blames the system.
We first brought you this story last week.
Kenneth Brown found 55-year-old Alvin Meier sleeping outside the Hospitality Center in Port Arthur.
Brown took Meier to the social security office and then to a nursing home in Vidor where he could have stayed, depending on his medical history.
From the nursing home, Brown and a woman on the nursing home staff took Meier to Christus Hospital Saint Elizabeth in Beaumont for an evaluation from a doctor.
It wasn't until several days later Brown learned when he called to check on Meier that he'd been released from the hospital and taken to the Salvation Army.
The Salvation Army confirmed with KFDM news that Meier did stay at the shelter then left the next morning on his own.
Brown says no one told him or the worker from the nursing home that Meier was released from the hospital until he made the phone call.
He argues he's the one who brought Meier there for treatment and therefore felt he should be kept in the loop when it comes to his care.
"It's kind of made things difficult because in one sense when you try to help someone, you don't receive all the information that you're supposed to have to move forward to help them so they kind of fall through the cracks and they're kind of left out stuck. As far as the laws, I don't know anything about the laws. All I know it it's not working."
KFDM reached out to Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick to find out what role, if any, the county plays in helping with situations like this one.
Judge Branick explained although written to protect people, "the mental health laws are full of provisions on privacy and they sometimes work to the detriment of the patient."
We also spoke with Janna Fulbright at the Spindletop Center in Beaumont.
The organization helps people with mental health concerns as well as those who are seeking information about crisis management and other issues.
"You can't always talk to other people and say, you know, I brought this person in to say, the Baptist Behavioral Health unit, or I referred him to you guys at Spindletop and he said he would go, did he go. We can't divulge that sort of thing. But it doesn't always help a good Samaritan who really wants to check up on somebody they were trying to help."
We took a look at the HIPAA laws listed on the website for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Under the section listed "Who can look at and receive your health information" it says, "Your information can be used and shared with your family, relatives, friends, or others you identify who are involved with your health care, or your health care bills, unless you object."
To read more about HIPAA laws and your right as a patient, click here:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/index.html
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