Seems like Obamas IRS has been busy...
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/irs-face-lawsuit-over-theft-60-million-patient-health-records
IRS faces class action lawsuit over theft of 60 million medical
records
California HIPAA-covered entity sues big time
SAN DIEGO | March 15, 2013
This story has been updated.
The Internal Revenue Service could now be facing a class action
lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the
health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records
of all California state judges.
According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered
entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million
medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents.
The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included
psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug
treatment and other medical treatment data.
"This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by
several Internal Revenue Service agents," wrote Robert E. Barnes,
attorney representing the John Doe Company, in the official complaint.
"No search warrant authorized the seizure of these records; no
subpoena authorized the seizure of these records; none of the
10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known criminal or civil
investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to
the IRS search. IT personnel at the scene, a HIPPA facility warning on
the building and the IT portion of the searched premises, and the
company executives each warned the IRS agents of these privileged
records," the complaint continued.
According to the complaint, the IRS agents obtained a search warrant
for financial data pertaining to a former employee of the John Doe
Company, however, "it did not authorize any seizure of any healthcare
or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties
completely unrelated to the matter," the complaint read.
The IRS did not respond to multiple inquiries regarding the case.
�If the allegations are true, the IRS is in trouble,� wrote Jim Pyles,
Washington-based healthcare privacy lawyer, in a statement to
Healthcare IT News. �By both constitutional law and HIPAA, then I
think we have a problem.�
Pyles added that the Fourth Amendment was drafted in response to the
General Warrants issued by the King of England under which his
officers could search for any evidence of crime without showing
probable cause. �The drafters expressly sought to curb that practice
in the 4th Amendment which guarantees the �right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against
unreasonable searches and seizures,�� he explained. If the allegations
are true, �they way overstepped the limits of the search warrant.�
Just recently, IRS officials have been under fire over routinely
searching through Americans� emails, an action the American Civil
Liberties Union bills as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The
agency�s justification of this process may foreshadow the fate of the
California lawsuit. According to New York Daily News, back in 2009 the
IRS wrote, �The Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held
in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server,
because Internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy
in such communication.�
The class action lawsuit against the IRS seeks $25,000 in compensatory
damages "per violation per individual" in addition to punitive damages
for constitutional violations. Thus, compensatory damages could start
at a minimum of $250 billion.
--
"You guess the truth hurts?
Really?
"Hurt" aint the word.
For Liberals, the truth is like salt to a slug.
Sunlight to a vampire.
Raid� to a cockroach.
Sheriff Brody to a shark
Bush to a Liberal
The truth doesn't just hurt. It's painful, like a red hot poker shoved
up their ass. Like sliding down a hundred foot razor blade using their
dick as a brake.
They HATE the truth."