FILEGATE: LCO Tribal Council won't tell those whose medical records were taken!

At their weekly meeting this morning, the LCO Tribal Governing Board, under the advice of the tribal attorneys, will not be releasing the names of the individuals whose medical records were taken home by an employee of the clinic. They won’t even be telling the persons on a one-on-one basis informing them that their HIPAA rights have been violated.

The tribal attorney, Jason Stark, said that under HIPAA, certain things don’t need to be said. The tribal council went along with him and pretty much said they are not going to even tell each member that they should be protecting themselves from possible identity theft. Those nearly 200 records had social security numbers and personal signatures on them.

I asked our chairman in the meeting why he doesn’t set the record straight if these are all just rumors going around…about what exactly happened. That’s what he is claiming in the meeting, that it is all just rumors on how it went down. But, maybe, they won’t release names, or tell us what happened because they know that we might see a pattern if we saw all the actual names of individuals whose rights have been violated. We might actually see a pattern that specific people were targeted.

First, I’m going to recap what we allegedly know so far. Remember, this information is from some pretty good sources, but, hasn’t been verified by the health center director, any member of tribal council or tribal police.

A couple of years ago, a clinic employee took home 187 patient medical records and, allegedly, some doctor and employee resumes. She claimed that it was because she was overworked and decided to take them home to get caught up, even though this is a major HIPAA violation. This story does change later, though.

A couple of years go by and quite possibly she forgot that she had them at her residence. She and her boyfriend have some problems at home, whereby, she moves out. A relative of the boyfriend comes to the home to help him move her stuff out and discovers the records. The relative, a former employee of the clinic, knew immediately that she shouldn’t have had those records at home. The relative calls police and it is at this point the story becomes murky. At first it was alleged that a conservation warden came to the residence and picks up the records and personally delivers them to the tribal office. The warden claimed that he was never involved and claimed that he doesn't even know how he was brought into this story. I believe him. So, what did happen at this point. Either the police themselves came to the residence and picked up the files and brought them to the the tribal office, or they returned them to the clinic. This may or may not be true, but like I said, rumor has it.

At any rate, where the records went, who saw them at this point, or if they even got delivered to the tribal office, can’t be verified. I asked the council members at the meeting today if the records were delivered to the tribal office and each one said they hadn’t seen them, not denying that they came there, just that they hadn’t seen them.

From what one poster said on a very lengthy Facebook thread in regards to these records taken is that LCO Police had to return these files immediately upon receiving them and that the police said they didn’t look at the records. So, were the records initially received by someone at the tribal office and then turned over to police, or were they brought directly to the police. Either way, our tribal leadership refuses to address this and put to rest the rumors. Our chairman should be out there publicly making a statement about this whole situation. He should be out there reassuring our clinic clients that they have nothing to worry about and that we are doing everything we can to make sure this never happens again. But no, total silence on the whole issue in the hopes that it just goes away. Not going to happen!

The poster also said that there are people who do know that it was their records that were taken and they’ve filed complaints with the Indian Health Service who responded that it was still under investigation and couldn’t do anything about it right now.

Then in March, we here that the employee is appealing her firing from the clinic because she claimed that she was told to remove the files by a tribal council member. Supposedly there may have been two members who told her to remove the files for their pharmacy records to see who is on prescription pills and then to turn those files over to the Sawyer County Sheriff’s department or LCO police, which, we now know, never happened. The files stayed put in her home.

Another part of the story goes something like this…at least one member of the tribal council was also targeted and is part of the long list of 187 people whose records were taken. I don’t know which one. I don’t know which council members told her to take the files either, but we, as tribal members have every right to know.

Just recently, the court case on her appeal to get her job back finished up and there’s no word on what happened, but by the conduct of those in the council meeting, I’m assuming her removal was upheld.

Our tribal council has a duty to answer some of these questions.

Whose files were removed? At least tell the individuals.  

Who ordered this employee to take those records home?

Which tribal council member was targeted?

Were the files ever taken to the tribal office at any time during this whole process?

I think it's important at this time that everyone be well aware of who's actually running things. There are seven members to the tribal governing board, but it only takes four to band together to control the votes. Currently, our chairman Mic Isham, vice chair Rusty Barber, sec-treasurer Norma Ross and Little Guy Clause are the four. They are so in control that they sometimes make decisions by consensus without even consulting with the other members Don Carley, Gordon Thayer and Larry Kagigebi.

When I refer to the "Council" did this, these four members in control are who I am referring to. The other three members, as members of the council, you would think are privy to any ongoings or information that is happening at the tribal council level, but they are so left in the dark, that they don't even know who's medical records were taken from the clinic. They can't even access this information. So, who does know whose records were taken? Allegedly, a conservation warden brought those records from the home of the clinic employee directly to the tribal office, which I'm sure if this is what truly happened, then our chairman received them. So how is it that the other council members are denied access to the information?

I’m repeatedly told that Mic can't do anything without council approval, so then he must have had approval of the council to take the action that they did concerning these records, which is to say nothing at all. So, this is an example of how these four council members are in complete control because the others have no clue what's going on with the medical records issue. All three of the council members who have been left in the dark are up for re-election, making them lame ducks. Only one of the four in control is up for re-election and that's Little Guy. This is why they are so blatant with their misconduct in office right now, because they feel safe in their officer positions.

This is only one wrong in a sea of them lately that this council has perpetrated. Jobs lost, given away, eliminated, created for friends and family, no transparency in regards to tribal finances and attempts to restrict people’s freedoms of speech and the list goes on… I'm just frustrated with the blatant disregard for our people by this "council" that I believe it's time we restore Native pride. There are so many of our people losing their jobs who have been in positions for many years, or so many other people being blackballed, that these guys don't even care who they hurt in their path to fatten themselves up. They get rich while the rest of us miss out on all the opportunities that a healthy tribe could offer.

If the employee is telling the truth about council ordering her to remove those files from the clinic, which I believe she is, then we have a serious violation of their duties as elected representatives, which is basically criminal, and grounds for council removal. Think of the potential abuses of power they could have with those records. They don’t just have your medical history but your social security number and your signature. They could get credit cards in your name, but, to abuse their positions, they could do background checks on you at any time.

When I told you all about Mic approaching my advertisers in Hayward last fall to stop them from advertising with me and starting a newspaper for the tribe, he had shown up to Coop’s Pizza Parlor with a packet of information on me…a background check! Sure, he could get my CCAP information, but from what I’ve been told, he showed up with a lot more than my CCAP. So, how did Mic get my background check information? I’m not saying he was a part of this medical records scandal. I don’t know that at all, but, now I can be suspicious, because I’ve been wondering the whole time how he had all this information about me when he went to my advertisers. You aren’t supposed to be able to get a background check on someone unless that person signs off on it, okaying it. I don’t even know if they have my records, but, this is the point I’m trying to make to you all. He did have my background information and I’m questioning how. My personal information and my signature would be in those records so that anyone could forge my signature. They should tell me if I’m included in those files or not, so that I can eliminate this suspicion. Any one of you could be victim of something like this and you have a right to know if your files were taken!

Start asking questions, people. Start asking who on that council this employee is related to or close friends with. Who would have had the balls to approach a clinic employee and ask her to clearly violate the law?