This can’t possibly be legal -
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Even more surprising, six universities complied with the request. I suspect some lawyers are salivating about potential HIPAA violations.
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Despicable and twisted, along with being illegal. Wow, just horrifying.
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I clicked on a link in the Insider article to try to get more information. Here is an article that was linked: Students urge USF to reject DeSantis request for data on gender-affirming care
According to the above article, the state requested the following from public universities in FL:
details on the ages of patients treated, the number of “encounters” where sex reassignment was sought, and the names of facilities where patients were referred. It also asked for the number of individuals prescribed specific hormone treatments and surgical procedures.
The state apparently requested that the data not include personal information (contrary to the Insider article’s implication that trans students’ entire personal medical records are being requested). So I am not sure about HIPAA violations. Maybe someone who knows more than me about HIPAA could comment on the legality of the state’s request.
Students quoted in the above article are objecting because the trans community is small enough that it would be possible to do some detective work and connect these records to individual students.
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I’m sure it’s a matter of moments before there are many more flags on this post, but I will remind users for the time being that we still have to observe Forum Rules. As much as we might want to make our feelings about particular people known, please refrain from making your posts political.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/guidelines
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I edited my post to remove my statement -
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Does he even reside in the USA?
HIPAA! So wrong on so many levels! Has anyone done a mental evaluation?
What is he going to do with that information? Build concentration camps?
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Also to add, someone is free to make a thread in the politics forum. If you are not yet a member, see the below link on how to join.
But tlo reiterate, political discussion is not allowed outside that forum, nor will moderators move posts in or out of that forum. So any post here which does not comply is subject to deletion without comment.
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This is just a request for information that is perfectly legitimate. Nobody is identified. No HiPAA violations. I’m betting (for sure) that anyone who ever went to a hospital for any particular condition has had their information included into some sort of study. Covid comes to mind–how many people were in the hospital for covid? How many were obese? How many had cardiac conditions? How were they treated?
So translate this. We have a perceived problem. But we aren’t truly sure if it’s a problem or not. Maybe yes or maybe no. We need data. How many people are affected? Is there a correlation as to where they went for treatment? Was treatment appropriate? Is it so few people that we should move on? Or is it something else?
Change it to maternal deaths–x number mothers died at such and such hospital. How do you think that info came about?
1500 cases of pediatric RSV are reported in tiny town USA. Where? Add–all in one hospital but nobody else seems to have it…
This type of info is constantly requested with good reason. You don’t know if there is a potential problem until you have gathered any type of data.
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Clickbait. I am surprised CC posters fell for it
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The problem is that this isn’t occurring in a vacuum.
With things like maternal deaths, Covid hospitalizations, etc - there is a general consensus that dying is a bad.
With gender transitions, there is not a consensus on what part is bad — obviously kids in distress is bad, but is allowing them to transition the bad thing or forbidding them from transitioning the bad thing.
Further, the disagreement on what is bad is divided along political/cultural lines, not medical lines. In the medical community, the general agreement is supportive care is the most effective treatment and that includes medical transition over time.
I think skepticism and worry is warranted.
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COVID-19, obesity, etc are a lot more common than anything transgender related, so there could be privacy concerns if the number of people involved is small. Even in non-HIPAA contexts (e.g. college admissions or post-graduation outcomes), public information may be masked for this reason if the number involved is small (e.g. the post-graduation outcomes of a major with one or two graduates that year).
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What study is the info being collected for? DeSantis’ rep referred the question to DeSantis’ speech, in which he says: “We are committed to fully understanding the amount of public funding that is going toward such nonacademic pursuits to best assess how to get our colleges and universities refocused on education and truth.”
So, the want to see how much is wrongly (implied) being spent on such care? That’s the “study”?
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I would expect that state to have a breakdown of all taxpayers dollars spent by medical condition and location. Is this audited? Cardiac, maternity, psychiatric, whatever.
Yeah, this is a good point.
For example, if Florida had decided to invest money to study gender dysphoria in its population, and had started a program with a published process that falls in line with general medical practices, and this was a request to meet that study, then this seems appropriate.
However, when asked, they referred to a political speech.
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I’d really like to know the cut-off for “public information” not being out there.
“99.9% of the class graduated.” “But Joe Whatsis failed miserably and is on the news tonight because.”
Never happened. Joe Whatsis name didn’t show up. Unless he put it on social media.
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That isn’t what DeSantis’ spokesman said - he referred to DeSantis’ political speech.
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Understood. And I am pointing out that this info is likely already collected for routine use by the Health Dept auditors.
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I’m going to disagree with this. No debate but totally disagree with this statement.
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I agree, which makes this request more worrisome because it’s being singled out and referred to as a political issue and not a medical issue by DeSantis’ spokesman.
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