Posted on 07/17/2014 6:13:36 PM PDT by markomalley
Is the Department of Veterans Affairs hiding behind HIPAA to hit federal whistleblowers?
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It protects the privacy of patients’ health information. It is not meant to be a weapon against federal employees who expose wrongdoing at the VA or anywhere else.
Citing patient privacy, managers have threatened VA employees or retaliated against those who complain about agency misconduct, according to a key congressman and the union that represents most of the department’s employees.
The “VA routinely uses HIPAA as an excuse to punish into submission employees who dare to speak out,” said Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He is leading a probe into the coverup of long wait times for VA patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
HIPPA gives everybody access to your medical records... except you.
Some seriously cold hearted people in the VA.
There is an official protocol for masking PHI. A whistle blower complaint could be couched in terms of “Patient X, Patient Y, identity shall be provided by Whistleblower W pursuant to court order.”
Simple solutions. Find out where numbers were falsely reported. Fire those people and then take legal action to recoup fraudulently earned bonuses. Cancel the bonus program. Last, hire a bunch of newly retired military hospital staff members to go around an inspect the VA and clean house.
How is it that ILLEGAL ALIENS have a right to privacy but the NSA spies on every American?
How is it that we were inn such a hurry to send Elian Gonzalez back to Communist Cuba (by force) but if you wnat to send these folks back, you’re a racist?
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