Heavily Armed Federal Agents Show Up at Home of Texas Doctor After He Blew Whistle on Sex-Change Program at Texas Children's Hospital, Serve Him Federal Indictment Biden's Justice Department indicted a Texas surgeon who blew the whistle on a sex-change program at the Texas Children's Hospital. In May 2023, Dr. Eithan Haim leaked the sex change documents to investigative reporter Christopher Rufo. Dr. Haim was careful not to disclose any patient information but the Biden Department of Justice indicted him on four felony counts related to HIPAA violations. One day after Dr. Haim exposed the Texas Children's Hospital, the Texas state legislature voted to ban transgender medical treatment and procedures on minors. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/heavily-armed-federal-agents-show-up-home-texas/ Sounds like political retribution. Many progressives are angry about this being exposed, and the embarrassment it caused to their aims, and scrutiny it will put these programs under. The enforcement of this law is clearly being abused. This is not the first time progressives have gone after a conservative for medical whistleblowing. They went after two conservative activists who used secret recording to uncover fetal organ harvesting that were going on in abortion clinics. California passed a law to cover up for Planned Parenthood
Sounds like vigilante journalism. I reckon prison is easier to deal with when you know you're there for doing something righteous and good. I mean its still awful they're being persecuted by our illustrious govt for protecting children from psychos. But man they gotta be the most content person in that whole place.
Looking at this from a legal standpoint, this wasn't what HIPAA laws were originally intended to do. HIPAA law is suppose to protect medical patient privacy, from those with privileged access to that medical information. Which is totally understandable. But this doctor did not reveal names of patients or their specific identities. Yet the Justice Department is still using this law to go after them. And then the Constitutional implications. Even not considering the First Amendment (right to freedom of the press), it really brings into question whether this is an appropriate area of legal jurisdiction for the federal government. They'll try to argue the government has jurisdiction because it is inextricably involved in helping to fund all these hospitals and medical centers, but I believe that's not a very good excuse. What justification can there be for making this illegal when patient identities are not made public? Are HIPAA laws being used by government now to protect the confidentiality of doctors?
Doesn’t matter if he detailed treatment and/or detailed demographic information that may be enough to trace the patient and THAT is a violation of HIPPA. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/privacysummary.pdf
This is clearly very one-sided reporting. I can only find other reporting taking the same lead, and there is key information missing to allow anyone to reach an honest judgement. It isn't clear that the hospital was doing anything illegal given that his accusations apparently came before Texas banned gender transition treatment for minors (indeed, it is referenced as a factor in making that happen). There is an accusation that hospital officials lied when they said they were ending such treatment previously, but there aren't any details about the proposed scope or timing of that. Regardless, I'm not sure leaking clinical details (even if nominally anonymous) to a journalist would be necessary or justified to expose that. Whistle-blowers should be going via forma regulatory or legal routes in the first instance, and only resorting to the media where those routes are somehow blocked or ineffective. Of course, that requires the claims to involve actual breaches or regulations and/or the law in the first place. It is perfectly possible the hospital did do something wrong and there shouldn't be any issue with that being formally investigated (as is apparently the case here), but if it that was true, that doesn't mean this doctor didn't breach HIPAA in the way in which he went about it. There shouldn't be any issue with that being investigated too. Out of interest, I did find one interview with him calling him the founder of "Alliance for Medical Ethics, an organization founded to promote freedom of thought and truth in medicine regarding important ethical issues such as sex-change procedures on minors and COVID-19 policy" (https://www.widerlenspod.com/p/episode-151). I couldn't find anything else about that organisation, but it could hint that this isn't just about a random doctor happening to stumble over something.
The question isn't whether what the hospital was doing was illegal. Conservatives had suspected something like this was going on, but many of those on the Left kept denying it and saying it wasn't happening. What is legally "wrong" and what is ethically "wrong" are two different discussions.
There seems to be some trade-off between the right to freedom of the press and public debates over societal issues, and maintaining secrecy and privacy. The whole reason it is important to provide some detailed information is to be able to verify it, and provide proof. Otherwise those on the other side will just allege that it's not really happening, there is no solid evidence, and it is probably just made-up.
Whatever the people you define as "the Left" might say (or you imagine say), there's no indication this hospital was doing anything secretly. They openly offered gender affirming treatment, disagreed with the governors claim that such care was already illegal under child abuse statutes and only (reluctantly) announced they would end that treatment when the new law explicitly criminalising it came in to force (well after the leak). Yes, and it is definitely ethically wrong and quite possibly legally wrong to leak private data (especially if it could include identifiable medical data) to a journalist just because you have moral objections to your employers policies.
No “trade off” as others have said there are or SHOULD be formal routes of reporting prior to leaking to the press. If the medical officer has not followed those prior to the leak he is in violation of more than HIPPA
That type of statement seems totally senseless. I can only assume you do not understand the actual issue and background of this issue if you are saying that. Who are they going to report this to? None of the political leaders in that state are going to do anything about it, and would rather prefer it doesn't come to light. This is an issue that belongs in the field of public debate. That is probably the only way that any action could end up being taken in response to it. And that's exactly why so many on one particular ideological side don't want the public to be informed about it. In reality, these state prosecutors and courts do not have any cares about the "privacy" of individuals. Rather they are motivated to seek retribution against the whistleblower who allowed this story of what is going on to leak out. It seems absurd to suggest there must be some government official whom this could have been reported to, when the government is now prosecuting the whistleblower because they are angry about the public being informed about this issue.
