You would think that Attorney Generals won’t lie, but when they are on a mission everything goes, even lying!
They are claiming insurance fraud and subpoenaing medical records for trans patients.
These dragnets are designed to do one thing… create fear.
Here Connecticut we have a law to protect us.
These guys are supposed to be held to a higher standard instead of crawling around in the gutter. And shame on Vanderbilt University Medical Center.Several attorneys general made ‘abusive legal demands’ to get trans patients’ medical records, senators allege
The Senate Finance Committee staff singled out Vanderbilt University Medical Center in a report for caving in to the demands of Tennessee’s attorney general.
NBC Out News
By Jo Yurcaba
April 16, 2024Four attorneys general in conservative states have abused their authority to investigate transgender patients and their health care, and hospitals must do more to protect them, a new Senate Finance Committee report argues.
The report, titled “How State Attorneys General Target Transgender Youth and Adults by Weaponizing the Medicaid Program and their Health Oversight Authority,” investigates how attorneys general in Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana and Texas have opened investigations into hospitals for alleged Medicaid fraud or violations of consumer protection laws. They opened the investigations, the report argues, “in order to further ideological and political goals,” and there has been “significant variation in hospitals’ responses to such requests and their approaches to safeguarding the privacy of one of their most vulnerable patient populations—LGBTQIA+ people.”
The investigations have been opened as hundreds of state bills have sought to roll back transgender rights over the last few years. In recent years, 24 states have passed restrictions on gender-affirming medical care for trans minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery.
The report specifically singles out Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which turned over transgender patients’ medical records to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in June as part of Skrmetti’s investigation into alleged medical billing fraud.
“Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Tennessee sits at one extreme: the hospital failed to object in any material manner to the Tennessee Attorney General’s sweeping request and then caused undue terror to young patients and their families by supplying the Tennessee Attorney General with some of the records requested and then, again, by erroneously notifying some patients of medical record disclosures that had not occurred,” the report says.
[…]
VUMC notified patients their records had been disclosed on June 19, the report found. “After receiving this information, many patients experienced suicidal ideation and suffered significant emotional distress, including depression and anxiety,” the report says, citing an ongoing class-action lawsuit filed against VUMC by two patients whose medical information it provided to the attorney general.
Why is it that Republican think they can lie with impunity?Finance Dems accuse Republican AGs of abusing authority to get records of transgender minors
The Hill
BY BROOKE MIGDON
April 16, 2024Republican attorneys general in at least four states have abused their oversight authorities to demand the private medical records of transgender minors and adults as part of a broader effort to restrict access to gender-affirming health care nationwide, according to a Senate Finance Committee report released Tuesday.
Investigations launched by Attorneys General Ken Paxton of Texas, Todd Rokita of Indiana, Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee and Andrew Bailey of Missouri into seekers and providers of transition-related care “demand a host of invasive items” such as lists of individuals referred for care and unredacted physical and mental health records, according to a report by the committee’s majority Democratic staff.
“Framed as civil investigations seeking to determine if there has been misuse of Medicaid funds (Tennessee) or violations of consumer protection laws (Indiana and Missouri), these campaigns investigate medical providers on their provision of transgender medical care,” the report states, adding that the investigations are motivated by “ideological and political goals.”
The Hill has reached out to the GOP attorney general offices for comment.
The office for the Tennessee attorney general said its investigation targeted health care providers, not patients.
They are claiming insurance fraud and subpoenaing medical records for trans patients.
In February, PFLAG National, a nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy group, sued Paxton after his office demanded the organization hand over information related to its support of transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care. Paxton’s office said the request pertained to allegations of “misrepresentations” of transgender health care in violation of a state law protecting against false or misleading business practices.
Paxton is facing a similar lawsuit from Seattle Children’s Hospital, which sued the attorney general’s office in December after it was sent a subpoena demanding patient records of Texas residents who had received gender-affirming care. Paxton in November issued a similar demand to QueerMed, a telemedicine clinic based in Georgia.
The attorneys general of Missouri and Indiana have similarly cited consumer protection laws to justify investigations into transgender clinics. A short-lived emergency rule issued by Bailey, the Missouri attorney general, last year claimed gender-affirming treatments were already banned in the state under an existing law governing “unfair, deceptive, and unconscionable business practices.”
After issuing the report, Wyden and other Democrats in a letter to health care industry trade groups called on hospitals and health care providers to protect patients’ private medical records from “abusive legal demands by state attorneys general.”
Public Act No. 22-19 AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROVISION OF PROTECTIONS FOR PERSONS RECEIVING AND PROVIDING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN THE STATE AND ACCESS TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN THE STATE.The act prevents reproductive health information being released without the patient’s approval.
(1) "Reproductive health care services" includes all medical, surgical, counseling or referral services relating to the human reproductive system, including, but not limited to, services relating to pregnancy, contraception or the termination of a pregnancy; and (2) "Person" includes an individual, a partnership, an association, a limited liability company or a corporation.
(b) When any person has had a judgment entered against such person, in any state, where liability, in whole or in part, is based on the alleged provision, receipt, assistance in receipt or provision, material support for, or any theory of vicarious, joint, several or conspiracy liability derived therefrom, for reproductive health care services that are permitted under the laws of this state, such person may recover damages from any party that brought the action leading to that judgment or has sought to enforce that judgment. Recoverable damages shall include: (1) Just damages created by the action that led to that judgment, including, but not limited to, money damages in the amount of the judgment in that other state and costs, expenses and reasonable attorney's fees spent in defending the action that resulted in the entry of a judgment in another state; and (2) costs, expenses and reasonable attorney's fees incurred in bringing an action under this section as may be allowed by the court.
Notice that they say nothing about abortions or trans healthcare but rather "Reproductive health care services" which covers our healthcare.
One concern it that they are hiding their witch-hunt as insurance fraud which I know in the past that was how the healthcare providers got us covered by insurance, it is a common practice that providers uses to stretch coverage to uninsured treatments. And now the Republicans are trying to use it against us while ignoring other healthcare providers who do that for other cis-gender patients.
One concern it that they are hiding their witch-hunt as insurance fraud which I know in the past that was how the healthcare providers got us covered by insurance, it is a common practice that providers uses to stretch coverage to uninsured treatments. And now the Republicans are trying to use it against us while ignoring other healthcare providers who do that for other cis-gender patients.
No comments:
Post a Comment