HIPAA and POTUS
-
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/hipaa-applies-to-the-president-too/
In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which took steps to ensure patient privacy and set rules for the handling of “protected health information.” Personal health information is exactly what it sounds like — medical history, test and laboratory results, clinical notes, insurance information and other data that a health-care professional collects in the process of providing care. HIPAA applies to the president’s doctors, and under the law, the president is entitled to the same right to privacy as every other American citizen. We can argue about whether that should be the case, but that is indeed the law right now; there is no presidential exception to HIPAA.
In addition to HIPAA limitations, the American Medical Association’s code of ethics declares, “Physicians have an ethical obligation to preserve the confidentiality of information gathered in association with the care of the patient . . . In general, patients are entitled to decide whether and to whom their personal health information is disclosed.” The exceptions listed are when the doctor is required by law or when “the patient will seriously harm him/herself or the patient will inflict serious physical harm on an identifiable individual or individuals.” There is no exception listed for when the patient is the president of the United States and there is great public interest in his condition.
In other words, the president’s doctor, Sean Conley, can only release information the president is comfortable releasing. (We can surmise that if the president is telling his doctor not to release certain information, that the president is awake and alert.)
The fact that the president is tweeting again this morning, in ALL CAPS, is another good sign. In at least one habit, he seems very much “back to normal.” Those stretches of Twitter silence this weekend were a little ominous. We know this guy; we’ve been living under him as president for almost four years now. If he’s awake, he’s tweeting.
-
@George-K said in HIPAA and POTUS:
The fact that the president is tweeting again this morning, in ALL CAPS, is another good sign. In at least one habit, he seems very much “back to normal.” Those stretches of Twitter silence this weekend were a little ominous. We know this guy; we’ve been living under him as president for almost four years now. If he’s awake, he’s tweeting.
The fact that the president is tweeting again this morning, in ALL CAPS, is another good sign. In at least one habit, he seems very much “back to normal.” Those stretches of Twitter silence this weekend were a little ominous. We know this guy; we’ve been living under him as president for almost four years now. If he’s awake, he’s tweeting.
My dad said almost exactly the same thing.
