Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Read:

http://benefitslink.com/articles/cantor200404.pdf

My Favorite Part:

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

This was covered before and it is pre-DOJ opinion stating that only health providers and insurance or medical records can be guilty under HIPAA.. Look at the 2005 DOJ opinion.

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Health plans are also covered. And when provided by an employer... (see previous post).

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

ah, current sauce:

HIPAA Employer - HIPAA Overview

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

It's been covered ITT.. likely as an "employer" they are clear.. Except for the $85,000 disclosure which goes towards medical payment records. That would have to flow through Sea Org or some entity like that and someone is definately on the hook for that leak.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Well, since you ask...

[belay that. I was trolled!]

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

OH SHI

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

xenubarb, that is a troll article on rantrave.

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Barb, YHBT.

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I come to work between 4:30 am and 5:30 am depending on my work load. Oh the life of a tech, never to see the dawn.

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Scientology just dug its own grave with this one; I asked a relative of mine (who works in the medical field) about this, and she basically said that they're fucked. At the very least, they're looking at ridiculously high fines, that could easily result in bankruptcy if they don't dig into their back-up supplies in the Caribbean. More than likely, though, Davey will just throw someone under the bus, and that person will be Bubba's bitch for years to come.

Anyone wanna bet that they'll try to use the "FAIR GAME IS A RELIGIOUS PRACTICE AND IS PROTECTED UNDER THE FIRST AMENDMENT" argument again in court?

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

But Herro says otherwise, so your relative is wrong.

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Hopefully your relative (who works in the medical field), me (who works in the medical field), and the nurse that I just talked to (who works in the medical field) are all right then that they just did a big no no.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Well obviously they will push the religious angle, [STRIKE]and one day somebody will say this illegal so you better make sure the orgs are the ones saying what is legal by then[/STRIKE] but will fail because it's finally known to many people that Scientology practices medicine without a license and is just one fuckedup insane ufo cult that blackmails its members, fabricates stories, and tries to ruin their reputations after they leave and speak out.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

You still need to get "kingpin" to press.

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Because Herro's a doctor, amirite?

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Do you think it is possible there is a difference between the medical field where it is a no-no... and say RTC, or even FLAG. Clearly someone might be in trouble in some doctors office or medical records, but that may not connect back to Scientology mgmt (other then in bad PR, if the media ever covered it).

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

No. In fact, the last people who should be consulted on this are medical professionals. What do they know about law?

Herro has looked into the issue, resolved it, and that's that.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Yes. That link needs to be properly established.

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You don't think doctors would be told what they can or can't do in medical school?

And where's his dox?

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

oh hey look at the tags

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

I think he should file a complaint, but I think this is a nonstarter if he personally disclosed this information not to the physician, but to the cult itself, which is not a physician or a typical third party payer like an insurance company. Other cases involving similar privileges have held that if a party subsequently discloses otherwise privileged information to a third party, they have effectively waived the privilege with respect to disclosures by that third party (at least if that third party does not owe their own duty of confidentiality). I have some cases on this but let the cult find them on their own if they can.

Marty should still file a complaint, though. I don't know whether they got this information from him personally or from his ex-wife, or simply stole it from the doctor's office. It's also possible the passage of HIPAA has effectively overruled those previous privilege cases. It's not like it can hurt to give it a shot.

Whether it violates HIPAA, though, it is disgusting and reprehensible, and another huge PR black eye for the cult. It should be trumpeted far and wide that this is how the cult gets revenge on people when it can't refute their valid accusations.

(Oh, there's another reason the claim could be valid; if the cult was acting as an employer. They'd probably claim he was working for RTC, though, and that it was really CSFSO that printed this material and sent it out, and they didn't get the information from RTC, but from OSA INT, a branch of CSI, which in turn got it from the ex-wife or, more likely, refuse to answer entirely and say they got it by private investigators hired by their lawyers, a transaction protected by two layers of privilege, attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege. As with most of these things, the chances of them getting away with it are nearly 100%. Note that none of these claims are new, they've made similar arguments repeatedly in past cases.)

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If we can't get them in legal trouble, then we can for damn sure damage their PR even further with it.

We need to finish the PR: http://forums.whyweprotest.net/42-english/pr-re-freedom-magazine-collaboration-thread-50466/

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If anything comes of this then one would hope that any investigation would also look at the pattern of behaviour when deciding about whether to prosecute/punish. I mean, is this just a one-off episode of bad judgement? (no), have they done this sort of thing to other people before?(yes but not widely reported officially) and are they likely to do it again if left unchecked? (very likely). The problem with that of course is that you'd have to take into account the whole cult spiderweb and ablative armour of legal entities, depending on how specific you have to be when filing a complaint and how much the investigating body is prepared to devote to playing whodunnit.

If it costs nothing to file a valid complaint then maybe Rathbun should do it. If nothing comes of it then all you'd have is the cult stupidly gloating over their "win".
It's down to Rathbun really.
However, in the meantime, this latest example and the cult's pattern of behaviour in doing this, is still good fodder for press release and news media.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

just wanted to state something very obvious lol

How many people in the real world have signed of on these HIPPA papers for the last, what at least 5 years. Or heard of the news of HIPPA violations surrounding celebs medical records and such. Or tried to find out info on a relative in the hospital and been told they can't.

Poor scifags don't know bout the real world. This again makes me sad.

Also, did anything ever come of scilons at Gold disclosing medical info on protesters? I see a pattern here.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Mr Pink is correct. The violation is clear, there is no wiggle room with HIPAA.

The Kinkos point is debatable as they do not proof read or know the content of your publication. Bridge publications however is under Micaviges umbrella.

Each person in the chain is liable and accountable, negligence of HIPAA rules is not an argument.

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Any newsfags around? This is major article worthy. We'll digg the shit out of it.

August is going to be so full of win.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

I'M NOT A NEWFAG

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Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

I never liked Zelda.

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It is worth exploring if they are self-insured and released the information as an employer or if this information was released per a Scn doc.

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I think what it comes down to is whether they got this info from Rathburn or whether they got it from a source covered by the HIPAA.

I just provided info and my interpretation of that info.

Yup.

Again, from what people have found out, it looks like the key issue is where the info came from.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

They are self-insured.

The Freedom mag clearly menions on page 58 that they spent $85,000 on Kingpin's medical care. That sort of information could only have been obtained through the financial records of the corporation. Such personnel would be covered under HIPPA's "Business Associate Defined" section.

The publication of the information by Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc. was malicious.

Scientology is the "self insured" provider of health care for its staff members. The Church of Scientology bills the Sea Org as a religious order of people who volunteer their time and lives to the forwarding of the Scientology Religion. They say that they pay for medical expenses. This places them as the health care provider for staff members such as Kingpin was.

Scientology's level of duty to HIPPA is no less than the person who works for any corporation in the Human Resources department and who helps handle medical insurance claims for the employees. The information should never have been disclosed, let alone to thousands of Florida residents.

Was David Miscavige aware of the disclosures in the magazine?

No corporation in their right mind would publish a huge magazine primarily covering a single senior executive (such as David Miscavige in the case of this Freedom magazine) without first running it by that executive and getting his approval.

There is no way in hell David Miscavige could defend himself against some claim that he knew nothing about the mag. The likelihood of that happening are next to nil. And it would be way too easy to prove in court that David Miscavige is a micromanager that requires everything to be run through him.

There's no way DM could pin the publication of this mag on other employees while excluding himself.

I sure hope Kingpin pursues criminal charges on this crime.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

I believe in the same 80 page .PDF that made the medical disclosure there is a statement that says the cult pays for SeaOrg medical so they are not bothered with such things.

Does DM have any involvement? Why yes, yes he does.



So his wife, working under David Miscavige, sets up a medical program for him as a 3party payer. The fact they were separated will not help their argument that she is his wife. As she did this under DM she also is held to to the HIPAA rules.

Either way, their stance on this disclosure will certainly conflict with the Headly case.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Actually not really but since i only play a lawyer on the internet I can only give my interpretation.

The real question is multifold...

Did RTC get this information from an employee and then disclose it. Is there an expectation of privacy because of this?

Did RTC get this information from a penitent, is there an expectation of privacy based on this?

From there you then have to figure out how HIPPA applies to a "church" or non profit corporation, hell how it applies to a non medical business.

From there if you read the statute you then have to prove that they KNOWINGLY violated the HIPPA laws which I have no clue if they have and this seems like one of those legal loop holes just itching to be used.

I have no clue it's quite posible that HIPPA is a blanket law that requires that any one who knows medical information needs waiver prior to saying anything. I highly doubt it considering I know more about MJs drug history then he probably did.

Cool thread though.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Carepoons.

Untitled

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

Even if Kingpin had disclosed some of the printed information, Scientology wouldn't re-publish it without checking their records for accuracy unless they wanted to face a libel charge. And I doubt seriously that Kingpin ever mentioned a total expenditure. Since he wouldn't have been the one paying the bills, he probably didn't know the magnitude of the charges. Only the Scientology-corporate-conglomerate would know that.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

The old "ignorance of the law is no excuse" applies here, too.

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Oh I agree, it's just like the first part of the HIPPA reg which seems like a built in loophole.

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Regardless of where the information came from, the organization held to superseding HIPAA rules. DM directly was involved in the setting up and providing for of the plan of care, he is held to HIPPA standards.

So. Since he is held to HIPAA rules/standards and he is responsible for the publication that occurred beneath his reign...............he has a problem.

Re: Freedumb Mag in HIPAA breach?

This is a beautiful thread.