HIPAA Blog

[ Tuesday, February 24, 2004 ]

 

FURTHER UPDATE on my AG post below: Late last week, I was watching the news and saw yet again the AG "police" storming into people's houses, "Cops" style, complete with black windbreakers with gold "Attorney General Officer" lettering on the back. This time, they were arresting nurses and nursing aides who worked at nursing homes that allegedly provided substandard care. You got it right, nurses. The crimes? Failing to timely address bedsores, filling prescriptions for themselves in the patients' names, and attempting to transfer a patient alone when a two-person transfer was indicated. The patients did get hurt (one eventually died even), but is it appropriate for the AG's G-men to show up with TV crews in tow to arrest these women at their homes? I don't have a problem with the AG throwing the book at these folks, but it's also not like they've just broken up the Cali cartel or the Genovese crime family.

It's this type of idiotic grandstanding that makes Mr. Abbott's HIPAA pronouncements questionable. It's clear that he's got a political agenda he's following, and it's equally clear that he simply doesn't understand HIPAA nor its impact on Texas governmental entities that are subject to both HIPAA and the PIA. Our last AG became a US Senator, and there's talk that our other US Senator may come back and run for governor (the current governor being the topic of some pretty scurrilous rumors these days) [[**Warning: that's a hot link for the easily offended**]]. I suspect Mr. Abbott has his eyes on one of those musical chairs

Jeff [11:19 AM]

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