Good Morning LCO. I have a couple of questions for the
membership today in regards to the patient files taken home by an employee. The
other day our TGB finally released a statement claiming their wasn't any HIPAA
violation. And, to top it off, the spin doctor himself (Mic Isham) is trying to
make people believe that it was I who had done wrong by pretty much forcing
them to respond when I received the list of patient names whose rights had been
violated. He has his people out there acting like I should go to jail and that
I violated HIPAA by receiving the list, a simple list with their names on it,
rather than focusing on the persons who actually broke the law by taking the
files home in the first place. No, instead they come out with a statement
saying there was no violation. Unreal. Anyways, here are a few questions I have
and I hope that you, the membership will keep asking of our chairman.
1. In the statement it says that the persons whose records
were taken will be contacted and informed. Have any of you been contacted yet?
2. If this was as simple as the clinic worker being behind
on work and taking these files home to get caught up, and if these files were
simply encounter forms that had to be coded for billing purposes, then why were
many of these files of deceased persons and people who haven’t visited the
clinic as far back as 2007 (that I know of)? Was she that far behind on work
that she was still filing persons encounter forms from five years prior to the
date she took them home? Or, even people who had been deceased for years?
3. Our chairman claims that there is documentation that
shows the “previous” director signed off on the clinic employee taking the
files home, yet, both previous directors Gosh and Don Smith claim that they
never signed off on it. On the documents that I received with the patient
names, on the cover sheet, Mic made sure to bold the statement about a director
signing off on it. Why would he do this unless there is a cover up attempt if
neither director actually signed off on it?
4. Have you asked yourself why the tribe’s official
statement on this whole ordeal didn’t come out until two days after I released
the list of names to those who were on the list? If the chairman wanted to be
truthful about this whole ordeal, why didn’t he come out with a statement right
away rather than wait until he had no choice? If it was as simple as a worker
trying to get caught up on work and the files were simply encounter forms, then
why not tell us that in the first place?
5. How was it not a HIPAA violation? Instead of putting out a
statement claiming it was not a HIPAA violation and that’s that, why not explain
it to us? As soon as those confidential files left the security of the health
center, it was a violation. They will claim it wasn’t because they will say the
files didn’t contain information such as social security numbers, but how is
the fact that a patient had a clinic visit in the first place not confidential
information? Does anyone think that the reason for that visit is not part of
privacy for the patient?
6. Why is it that the focus of our chairman is now on me,
the whistleblower of this whole thing, for having the list of names rather than
on the persons who actually took the files home? Remember people, she wasn’t
even fired till a month after the discovery of the files taken home, and that wasn’t
until Shondel Barber made the whole thing public. Shondel made the phone calls
and they knew she wasn’t going to stop until she got answers. Just a day or two
after her persistence, the employee was fired.
7. Finally, Does anyone really believe there is an
investigation by LCO Police into this matter, well, one that you’ll ever hear
the results of?
Here are links to the first three stories about this issue
Tribal Council won't tell those whose records were taken
The list of names revealed!
Council violated HIPAA Breach Notification Rule
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