Rocket Cat has informed me that Baylor College of Medicine and Baylor University with the football and the Ken Starr defending rapists are, in fact, not affiliated. (The story above didn't **technically** say that, but it sure as hell implied it with the Ken Star rape scandal link.)
I looked it up and this is absolutely correct -- though I also found that the College of Medicine was part of Baylor up until 1969 when the CoM wasn't able to function under the umbrella of BU any longer. Reading between the lines which were all about how BU strictures had made federal money less accessible to their medical school, it appears that BU was holding the medical school to a religious code that interfered with their ability to ... something related to medicine and ethical research.
Don't know! Don't care! But it's interesting, and kinda relevant again as religious hatred of women and abortion are again making fraught the provision of medical care for entities within Texas.
I'm not sure what happened in 1969. Maybe a final legal decree. But Baylor College of Medicine moved away from Baylor University and Waco WAY before that, in 1943, and didn't have any religious affiliation. In fact, they have a big Jewish genetics center. And a lot of funding from various Sheikdoms. Very Houstonian, not at all like Baylor University.
BCM was the top med school in the state, but it has been weakened by turmoil between it and some of its teaching hospitals, especially Methodist. Methodist got so mad they changed their med school affiliation to Cornell in NYC!
I can't tell from the info if this doc went to BCM for medical school, or just did a residency at a BCM affiliated hospital (Texas Children's). Two years is not enough for EITHER (and certainly not for both). But I'd like to see him be the first person to ever go to jail for violating HIPAA.
BTW HIPAA was a political compromise led by Hillary. Much like CHIPs, or children's insurance covered by Medicaid. She should have been President, she won the popular vote, and she did more as 'first lady' than tRump did as President.
Correctamundo. I was a surgical resident at Baylor College of Medicine, which is in Houston, during the 80s. It was a great place for surgical training as the population of Houston loved to shoot and stab each other. Also, one of the world’s best Cardiac Surgery programs at the time.
Anyway, Baylor University in Dallas had their own surgery residency. We used to fart in their general direction.
Back in my day (mid-90s), Baylor was widely considered the best medical school in Texas. I have several friends who went there. I heard at some point their reputation had gone down and I have no idea of their current ranking.
Ta, Crip Dyke. Beloved fiancé Meccalopolis and I are in the city tonight. We wanted to attend in-person Pride Shabbat (which also celebrated Juneteenth and solstice and full moon). Our lesbian social justice warrior rabbi is leaving, and the search begins for a replacement. She's terrific, and we are hiring her to perform our wedding ceremony.
All that said, I work in health care. I'm a Care Coordinator for HIV positive adults in the South Bronx. This is SUCH a violation of HIPAA, and I don't know that only because of compliance training.
Fortunately there are a fair number of progressive, lesbian Rabbis. Better than average religion in that regard. Even the Conservative Judaism cis-male Rabbi at my university has pride stickers all over his office window.
Having gone through HIPAA training, I can confirm that what Haim did is super illegal. He used deception to access patient information he had no legal authorization to. And then he shared it with a third party. That is a big no-no.
Rufo is, of course, a rat fucking piece of shit who doesn’t even care that people know he’s being dishonest. He just wants to hurt people.
Can Rufo be charged with a crime for knowingly accepting HIPAA data in violation of the laws? Can he be charged if he finds a way to dox all of the children?
"The most commonly used way to ensure compliance is to remove certain identifiers, and there are 18 identifiers listed by the HHS"
Can confirm, I work in a academic healthcare institution as an IT sysadmin, and one memorable year had to pass 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 HIPAA training certifications , all within a month, because none of the 4 orgs we were working with would recognize the certs we got from any of the others.
Hell at that time I could have rattled off the 18 identifiers and literal chapter and verse on the consequences for fucking it up without looking.
We no longer work with two of the orgs and my University and the hospital have agreed to accept each others certifications so it's down to one refresher course a year...
HHS can and does impose criminal penalties for egregious and deliberate violations: prison time and fines, potentially, for 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨: five records each of three hundred patients, is 1500 separate violations.
We're talking serious time, too; this meets Tier Three criteria for sure, and this applies to Rufo as well as the shithead who stole it in the first place.
One basic feature of most whistleblower protection laws is that the whistleblower make a reasonable attempt to make complaints and concerns known using the organization's internal procedures. Given that this is the medical profession, with its rigorous protections, it's pretty damned hard to claim that the organization is so toxic, dysfunctional and corrupt as to justify immediately going outside the organization, but also bypassing all government oversight bodies as well, in favor of a partisan political activist.
In short, any whistleblower defense is gonna go precisely nowhere in court.
Yep. There was even more than one anonymous hotline they could have tried, one run by Texas Child Protective Services. There was one other that my sources say that they could have tried, but I bet if they really looked they could have found other possibilities as well.
That leaves at least 6 separate reporting mechanisms, and that only is that small b/c we're not counting separate supervisors as different mechanisms. Of course, except for the hotlines (which they don't control and presumably where don't know the staff personally) they could choose whichever human they were most comfortable with to disclose their report.
But of course, on top of all that, from the best that I could tell, they had paused gender-related care. If there's anything you want to characterize as violating that pause, the closest I could find is that doctors possibly (I would even say probably) provided refills for prescriptions that patients were on before the pause was implemented.
Even setting aside that they DIDN'T try to blow the whistle anywhere at all that they had been trained to do so, there simply wasn't any rationale for blowing a whistle in the first place.
If PAB (head of the party pushing to roll back child-labor restrictions) wins, there will be a move to flat-out illegalize gender transition. Sure, the first draft will only apply to those under 18. Once that passes, the next step, immediately following, will be to forbid it to everyone. Can we just finally fucking realize this?
There's nothing heroic about someone who knows better violating HIPAA for popularity. That's why he didn't follow the relevant laws -- that wouldn't make him famous or get the attention of big deal MAGA shitfaces.
Not so sure in this case: Shield laws have limits, esp. when it comes to willfully and publicly exposing HIPPA PHI of individual patients, but time will tell.
Correction time!
Rocket Cat has informed me that Baylor College of Medicine and Baylor University with the football and the Ken Starr defending rapists are, in fact, not affiliated. (The story above didn't **technically** say that, but it sure as hell implied it with the Ken Star rape scandal link.)
I looked it up and this is absolutely correct -- though I also found that the College of Medicine was part of Baylor up until 1969 when the CoM wasn't able to function under the umbrella of BU any longer. Reading between the lines which were all about how BU strictures had made federal money less accessible to their medical school, it appears that BU was holding the medical school to a religious code that interfered with their ability to ... something related to medicine and ethical research.
Don't know! Don't care! But it's interesting, and kinda relevant again as religious hatred of women and abortion are again making fraught the provision of medical care for entities within Texas.
I'm not sure what happened in 1969. Maybe a final legal decree. But Baylor College of Medicine moved away from Baylor University and Waco WAY before that, in 1943, and didn't have any religious affiliation. In fact, they have a big Jewish genetics center. And a lot of funding from various Sheikdoms. Very Houstonian, not at all like Baylor University.
BCM was the top med school in the state, but it has been weakened by turmoil between it and some of its teaching hospitals, especially Methodist. Methodist got so mad they changed their med school affiliation to Cornell in NYC!
I can't tell from the info if this doc went to BCM for medical school, or just did a residency at a BCM affiliated hospital (Texas Children's). Two years is not enough for EITHER (and certainly not for both). But I'd like to see him be the first person to ever go to jail for violating HIPAA.
BTW HIPAA was a political compromise led by Hillary. Much like CHIPs, or children's insurance covered by Medicaid. She should have been President, she won the popular vote, and she did more as 'first lady' than tRump did as President.
Showing once again that the best way for science to deal with religion is to keep it at arms' length.
Correctamundo. I was a surgical resident at Baylor College of Medicine, which is in Houston, during the 80s. It was a great place for surgical training as the population of Houston loved to shoot and stab each other. Also, one of the world’s best Cardiac Surgery programs at the time.
Anyway, Baylor University in Dallas had their own surgery residency. We used to fart in their general direction.
I didn't know Baylor had programs in Dallas. Not a med school, at least. Are you thinking of UT-Southwest?
I'm so glad to no longer live in Texas. But I did like Houston, and the medical center, and the restaurants.
Did you have to taunt them a second time?
Back in my day (mid-90s), Baylor was widely considered the best medical school in Texas. I have several friends who went there. I heard at some point their reputation had gone down and I have no idea of their current ranking.
A moment of Gargling turned up this, which is a few years old but gives a sense of Baylor (the University, not the hospital/med school):
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/26/lgbtq-students-baylor-university-still-pushing-recognition/
What's this, accountability and transparency in reporting? You'll never get a gig with CNN or Fox like that!
Or NBC, CBS, ABC, the Vichy Times, any Murdoch rag....
And yet Trix throws buckets of emeralds and sapphires at me!
Act now to replenish her gemstone supply!
Whar whore diamonds?!
Whore diamonds are SO Ana Marie Cox days.
Parently I'm not whorey enough.
Well, it IS good to have attainable life goals.
Ummmmmmm FUCK. THIS. GUY.
Thanks CD
Ta, Crip Dyke. Beloved fiancé Meccalopolis and I are in the city tonight. We wanted to attend in-person Pride Shabbat (which also celebrated Juneteenth and solstice and full moon). Our lesbian social justice warrior rabbi is leaving, and the search begins for a replacement. She's terrific, and we are hiring her to perform our wedding ceremony.
All that said, I work in health care. I'm a Care Coordinator for HIV positive adults in the South Bronx. This is SUCH a violation of HIPAA, and I don't know that only because of compliance training.
Fortunately there are a fair number of progressive, lesbian Rabbis. Better than average religion in that regard. Even the Conservative Judaism cis-male Rabbi at my university has pride stickers all over his office window.
Aw, that's sweet. But then (for those who don't know, not for you, PoC) "Conservative Judaism" is not synonymous with political conservatism.
Having gone through HIPAA training, I can confirm that what Haim did is super illegal. He used deception to access patient information he had no legal authorization to. And then he shared it with a third party. That is a big no-no.
Rufo is, of course, a rat fucking piece of shit who doesn’t even care that people know he’s being dishonest. He just wants to hurt people.
Can Rufo be charged with a crime for knowingly accepting HIPAA data in violation of the laws? Can he be charged if he finds a way to dox all of the children?
"The most commonly used way to ensure compliance is to remove certain identifiers, and there are 18 identifiers listed by the HHS"
Can confirm, I work in a academic healthcare institution as an IT sysadmin, and one memorable year had to pass 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 HIPAA training certifications , all within a month, because none of the 4 orgs we were working with would recognize the certs we got from any of the others.
Hell at that time I could have rattled off the 18 identifiers and literal chapter and verse on the consequences for fucking it up without looking.
We no longer work with two of the orgs and my University and the hospital have agreed to accept each others certifications so it's down to one refresher course a year...
HHS can and does impose criminal penalties for egregious and deliberate violations: prison time and fines, potentially, for 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨: five records each of three hundred patients, is 1500 separate violations.
We're talking serious time, too; this meets Tier Three criteria for sure, and this applies to Rufo as well as the shithead who stole it in the first place.
"𝘛𝘪𝘦𝘳 1: 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘣𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘏𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 — 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘫𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 $50,000 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦.
𝘛𝘪𝘦𝘳 2: 𝘖𝘣𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘏𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘴 — 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘫𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 $100,000 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦.
𝘛𝘪𝘦𝘳 3: 𝘖𝘣𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘏𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 — 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 10 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘫𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 $250,000 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦."
based on the indictment, it appears that the AUSA is charging Tier 2.
I like HAIM a lot. Not this one, though.
One basic feature of most whistleblower protection laws is that the whistleblower make a reasonable attempt to make complaints and concerns known using the organization's internal procedures. Given that this is the medical profession, with its rigorous protections, it's pretty damned hard to claim that the organization is so toxic, dysfunctional and corrupt as to justify immediately going outside the organization, but also bypassing all government oversight bodies as well, in favor of a partisan political activist.
In short, any whistleblower defense is gonna go precisely nowhere in court.
Yep. There was even more than one anonymous hotline they could have tried, one run by Texas Child Protective Services. There was one other that my sources say that they could have tried, but I bet if they really looked they could have found other possibilities as well.
That leaves at least 6 separate reporting mechanisms, and that only is that small b/c we're not counting separate supervisors as different mechanisms. Of course, except for the hotlines (which they don't control and presumably where don't know the staff personally) they could choose whichever human they were most comfortable with to disclose their report.
But of course, on top of all that, from the best that I could tell, they had paused gender-related care. If there's anything you want to characterize as violating that pause, the closest I could find is that doctors possibly (I would even say probably) provided refills for prescriptions that patients were on before the pause was implemented.
Even setting aside that they DIDN'T try to blow the whistle anywhere at all that they had been trained to do so, there simply wasn't any rationale for blowing a whistle in the first place.
Maybe they can get the case in front of Judge Cannon.
Would that I could believe that in Our Age of Judges Cannon, Thomas and Alito
They are all such pathetic victims.
If PAB (head of the party pushing to roll back child-labor restrictions) wins, there will be a move to flat-out illegalize gender transition. Sure, the first draft will only apply to those under 18. Once that passes, the next step, immediately following, will be to forbid it to everyone. Can we just finally fucking realize this?
A story growing thankfully more and more common. Scumbag and enablers spout heroic propaganda, get justice anyway. Thanks, CD!
A story growing thankfully more and more common. Scumbag and enablers spout heroic propaganda, get justice anyway. Thanks, CD!
A story growing thankfully more and more common. Scumbag and enablers spout heroic propaganda, get justice anyway. Thanks, CD!
A story growing thankfully more and more common. Scumbag and enablers spout heroic propaganda, get justice anyway. Thanks, CD!
There's nothing heroic about someone who knows better violating HIPAA for popularity. That's why he didn't follow the relevant laws -- that wouldn't make him famous or get the attention of big deal MAGA shitfaces.
Put this pendejo in jail. That is all.
I'd add Ruffo, but my guess is as a "journalist, for a certain D- level of the job description, he may fall under the shield laws.
Not so sure in this case: Shield laws have limits, esp. when it comes to willfully and publicly exposing HIPPA PHI of individual patients, but time will tell.