| March 26th, 2005 |
Here are the questions I've been asking Kaiser. Unsurprisingly, Kaiser is ignoring them.
1. Who took down the Systems Diagrams in September. If it was Kaiser, why didn't they inform the 140 patients at that time that their private medical information had been on the web for over a year?
2. What were the Systems Diagrams used for? Were they used for communications between consultants? Do the Systems Diagrams still exist in local copies to be used by technical consultants? Have they been printed out and placed in training binders? Were the Systems Diagrams used to facilitate International communications with consultants in India?
3. Why didn't Kaiser inform the 140 patients after they received notice of the complaint from the OCR?
4. Why did Kaiser focus their resources on investigating me for two months after they were notified of my OCR complaint about *them*? At any time Kaiser could have used their investigation and legal resources to get information about who posted the System Diagrams from Tripod. Kaiser seems to have just assumed they were innocent instead of properly investigating.
5. When Kaiser called the 140 patients, why did they feel obliged to blame me for the Tripod site when Kaiser could not possibly prove that?
6. Kaiser originally denied the Systems Diagrams had been posted anywhere, and then they shifted to only admitting they had been on their Intranet. Does this mean they never actually investigated the OCR complaint, which was about the public docviewer.tripod.com site? Tripod, by the way, tells me they can release information on who set up the docviewer.tripod.com site with a "subpoena or parallel legal documentation". Why didn't Kaiser do that?
7. If the Systems Diagrams were originally on Kaiser's corporate Intranet, then isn't that a HIPAA violation in itself since not all Kaiser employees are authorized to view that patient information?
8. If the Systems Diagrams were password protected on the Kaiser Intranet, doesn't that limit the field for investigating who posted them on the public docviewer.tripod.com site?
9. Why does Kaiser's Spokesman continue to use the press to accuse me of stealing patient data and posting it on the Tripod site in July 2004 when their lawyers are holding the proof the Tripod site has been on a public web site and indexed by search engines such as Google since December 2002. I have posted that proof on my blog as well.
10. Will any other whistleblower ever dare come forward when they see what Kaiser could do to me? No one is going to reimburse me for my travel and paperwork costs and the tremendous energy I've put in to trying to find an attorney. And let's not even get started on how stressful it is to try to fend off Kaiser's PR machine as they tell national media that I stole patient data as an employee. My case will add to the culture of fear that keeps employees from holding their employers to basic ethical standards. That will be a serious blow to public accountability.
11. Why did the DMHC issue an Order against me, a private citizen who shouldn't even be under their jurisdiction, and not Kaiser, an HMO entity over which they most certainly have jurisdiction? I filed a HIPAA complaint against Kaiser for posting the Systems Diagrams on the web. If the DMHC sees it as their purview to issue Orders against this practice, why didn't they issue an Order against Kaiser first? This is discriminatory enforcement even if the DMHC is allowed to expand its powers over private citizens.
12. And this one is mind-boggling! In my previous blog entry, I mentioned discovering that I would be featured in at least one presentation at the upcoming National HIPAA Summit. I have now discovered that the President and CEO of the organization sponsoring the HIPAA Summit is Peter Grant, Partner and Chair of Health Law for the law firm Kaiser has hired to sue me! The proof is here. So not only do I have to deal with Kaiser's regular PR machine, it's quite possible that Kaiser's key messages about me are going to be foisted on an auditorium full of influential HIPAA experts! My case should have been excluded from presentation and discussion just on the basis of conflict of interest. :-(
Update: Peter Grant is denying conflict of interest. He is a Partner and Chair of Health Law of the law firm that Kaiser has hired to attack me: of course he has an interest in allowing the HIPAA Summit to perpetuate and magnify Kaiser propaganda!
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The fastest way to prove Kaiser is blaming me for their mistake is to get Tripod to turn over whatever information they have about who originally posted the Systems Diagrams.
Please help me by writing your political representatives to ask them to help me obtain this information from Tripod. Even if Tripod doesn't have a name, they should have an IP address, and this can be used to narrow down who posted the Systems Diagrams as well as to rule me out.
One easy and free way to write several of your congressional representatives at once is to use Congress Merge Online: http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/mailform2.cgi?site=cnhpnow
You can also use Congress Merge to find out who your representatives are. If you click on the names of your representatives, you will get an address for regular mail, as well as phone and fax numbers.
You can find contact information for Governor Schwarzenegger here.
You can find contact information for your California represenatives here.
You can contact the Office of the Attorney General here.
You might want to point some of these things out:
* I've been deprived of legal representation because attorneys regard my case as too expensive while Kaiser has teams of attorneys on staff.
* Kaiser is persecuting me because I filed a HIPAA complaint with the Office of Civil Rights. I should have gotten whistleblower protection.
* Kaiser is continuing to push on the press that I took the Systems Diagrams while I was an employee and posted them myself in July 2004 - even though Kaiser's lawyers are holding evidence that proves otherwise. If the true origins of the Systems Diagrams are revealed, everyone will see that Kaiser chose to scapegoat me instead of using their legal resources to ask Tripod for the information themselves. Moreover, everyone will see that Kaiser has no qualms about maintaining a lie, at the expense of a weak individual, just to avoid accountability for a HIPAA violation.
* A State Agency, the Department of Managed Health Care, has issued an Order against me solely based on Kaiser's claims. This creates new law to dramatically expand the powers of that State Agency so they can attack private citizens.
I need your help to get the matter of the Tripod site resolved quickly. Political representatives won't bother if I'm the only one who writes and begs for help. They need to know that their constituency in general cares about stopping Kaiser from using the legal system and Stage agencies to frame the person who reported their HIPAA violation.
Thank you for any efforts you make on my behalf.
*********
Update:
According to this account of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, there are supposed to be Whistleblower Protection built in to my OCR complaint!
http://www.bbhealthlaw.com/CM/Newsletters/newsletter_041101.asp
I'm faxing a letter to the regional OCR office today, but I'm worried they won't act quickly - it took them 4 months to respond to my original complaint.
Are there people who would be willing to also contact the OCR and urge them to follow up? And to let them know that the longer the source of the System Diagrams remains a mystery, the longer Kaiser can make up stories for the press and drag me to Court on bogus charges?
Here is the regional OCR contact info:
Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
50 United Nations Plaza - Room 322
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 437-8310; (415) 437-8311 (TDD)
(415) 437-8329 FAX
The OCR reference number for my HIPAA complaint is 04-28545.
Update: Still no word from the OCR, though I sent them a fax as well as leaving a message. If anyone calls on my behalf, please emphasize that the fact Kaiser tried to pin the Systems Diagrams on me means they never did a proper investigation of the original OCR complaint.
This would be an even bigger thank you for any efforts made on my behalf.
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