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0 points52-6F-626y ago0 comments

I wasn't speculating on the content of the article so much as just speaking to what it's actually about when many commenters were focusing on the fact that 4chan was in the headline.

I generally had otherwise considered correctional facilities to be rather mum—but it's a little different here in Canada.

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DoreenMichele6y ago· 2 in thread

Your general point is accurate. It's generally not acceptable to leak such info.

But this is only a HIPAA violation if it was leaked by medical personnel (or some other covered entity). At this time, we don't know who leaked it, so we don't know that HIPAA applies.

The article suggests it probably doesn't. It was apparently reviewed and found to be some third party, not EMS personnel.

52-6F-62OP6y ago

This is a side question to your points—and completely hypothetical for my own curiosity:

In this case would a guard leaning into the cell, watching and listening to the revival or treatment attempts by EMT personnel and leaking that information approach these laws in anyway?

For instance if Epstein was living and being treated but on the verge of death and the EMT staff didn't make any attempts to prevent spectators who proceeded to leak the information—

who would be at fault in such a case? Or does that also fall outside of HIPAA in the US?

DoreenMichele6y ago

HIPAA has a minimum necessary standard of disclosure. Ideally, EMS staff should try to put a stop to lurid interest of that sort (keeping in mind that their first focus will be emergency medical care, not policing who happens to be nearby, possibly for legitimate reasons) and could be held liable if what was leaked was due to things they actually said to a third party.

But I think you would probably have to pass a test of reasonableness. If you are getting medical treatment in a public space, there's only so much EMS can do to protect your privacy.

In practice, it's really hard to strictly comply with HIPAA and many institutions routinely violate it in small ways.

From what I gather, law enforcement, such as prison guards, have their own rules covering confidentiality. But I don't think a prison guard would be covered by HIPAA. A leak by a prison guard would have to be dealt with via other channels.

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