I have a sneaking suspicion this is dumb illegal and a massive HIPAA violation…
@BlastBunny Here's an article from Time. It's not a violation, but is scary.
https://time.com/6289609/vanderbilt-transgender-records-patients-backlash/
@BlastBunny It's shady as hell and clearly an intimidation tactic. I think the hospital should have fought it. The AG can't be given the benefit of the doubt that they were working in good faith.
Not even that government prosecutors need to justify all their requests.
And if Vanderbilt went to court to fight the records request they probably could have forced the prosecutors to narrow their search.
I don’t see any indication they did that
They seemingly just handed all of it over without court review if it was necessary.
@BlastBunny That's what I think happened. They got the request and complied.
They shouldn’t have
The hospital has a duty to make sure their patients especially their information is protected.
If a prosecutor comes looking for information you better be in court making sure it’s absolutely necessary.
@BlastBunny @WanderingDabbit
It looks like the difference depends on whether it's a "court order" signed by a judge, or a "subpoena" from an attorney. In this case, they probably did not have a choice.
https://www.hipaaguide.net/hipaa-subpoena-for-medical-records