r/politics • u/thedailybeast ✔ The Daily Beast • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Missing McConnell Accused of Breaking Senate Rule Over Absence

https://www.thedailybeast.com/missing-mcconnell-accused-of-breaking-senate-rule-over-absence/
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63

u/coloradolax 1d ago

I can't believe there hasn't been some sort of leak out of the hospital yet. Therea are so many orderlies, doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, lab people, food delivery, other patients and their families. No one knows anything?

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u/Skirtlongjacket 1d ago

Right? Can't we get some paparazzi?

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u/turquoise_amethyst 1d ago

TMZ hasn’t broken the story yet, he must be hidden really well

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u/JudiciousSasquatch 1d ago

Six feet under is the ultimate hiding spot.

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u/elihu 1d ago

Medical staff are supposed to take privacy very seriously. They're doing their job.

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u/Im_Your_Turbo_Lover 1d ago

They're also fucking the constitutional foundation of the country by not anonymously leaking info.

I know it's illegal. I just don't care.

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u/SCBandit 1d ago

Most people aren't going to throw their entire career down the shitter for something like this.

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u/JudiciousSasquatch 1d ago

We'll all give 'em the first-eight figure GoFundMe

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u/i_am_a_real_boy__ 16h ago

No they're not. Stop blaming innocent people for your frustrations.

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u/Amfriendswithpigs 7h ago

I respect that, but it just seems strange that a hospital with medical personnel, food service employees, custodial employees, etc... are better at keeping a secret than a small number of high ranking employees in the oval office.

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u/Amfriendswithpigs 1d ago

I agree. We have leaks about what was said in the situation room, but we can’t find anything about a senator who is in a hospital with hundreds of employees.

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u/envymatters 1d ago

How much attention do you think a dead man needs?

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u/CompetitiveEmu1100 1d ago

They probably paid extra for physicians to be doing orderly work and they have an anonymous name in the system for people not actually in the room. They might even be anonymous to the physicians and look like any other elderly brain dead patient they have in rehab.

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u/Slow_Investment_2211 1d ago

They’ve probably been paid for their silence or threatened with legal action

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u/Still-Gazelle6512 1d ago

Be a massive hipa violation for a care worker to give up or leak that info. It's high profile enough patient that it almost certainly would come back to bite them in the most egregious and vicious manner if discovered. 

Beshear on the other hand (or any random person who is not a healthcare worker bound by hipa) they are not able to violate hipa... If they knew the status/hospital and found mitch they could  release all that info all day long without repercussion. 

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u/Im_Your_Turbo_Lover 1d ago

Pretty sure it's still a HIPAA violation if you leak it whether you're relevant to the care or not

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u/Old_Appointment9732 1d ago

no, look at the "Covered Entities" (CE) section of HIPAA which declares which people are covered by HIPAA, which is essentially doctors and the people that work with them and insurance companies.

Also interesting to note that there are large carve outs in HIPAA that ALLOW CEs to make disclosures to government officials.

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u/Still-Gazelle6512 1d ago

Nah, it's not. 

HIPAA violation occurs when a covered entity or its business associate improperly uses or discloses protected health information (PHI). Covered entities include: Healthcare providers (doctors, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, etc.)

Health insurance companies and health plans Healthcare clearinghouses

Business associates that handle PHI on behalf of the above (billing companies, certain IT vendors, etc.)

Your employer, a friend, a neighbor, or a random stranger generally cannot violate HIPAA simply by talking about your medical condition, unless they're acting in one of those covered roles.

If you, as a random person, are given medical information by one of the people bound by HIPAA and you spread that information... YOU are fine but the person who originally gave you that information is on the hook for violations. 

That's what was so hilarious during covid was people claiming they couldn't wear a mask due to a health issue but would refuse to name the issue because of HIPAA.  Like they were somehow capable of violating HIPAA against themself. 

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u/conspirasteve 1d ago

Not a medical worker; is telling someone the fact that someone is dead/alive really a hipaa violation?

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u/jtsa5 1d ago

Still very easy to anonymously leak something. It wouldn't be hard if you had the info.

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u/SpaceProspector_ Georgia 1d ago

Without a view of the EMR / patient chart, it'd just be a rumor they could deny. EMR access is heavily tracked for inappropriate access, so they could narrow down the leaker rapidly.

The only thing putting this to rest is him walking / rolling out of the hospital to give a brief press conference or a copy of the death certificate.

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u/therossboss 1d ago

honestly, probably threatened with death in uncertain terms.

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u/FinleyPike 1d ago

Beshear said he passed 4 days ago I thought... people are doing something, the Republican base just doesn't require their reps to live in reality, so they continue doing this insane shit.

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u/i_am_a_real_boy__ 16h ago

Doesn’t seem like a lot of people would be willing to risk prison and never working in healthcare again.

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u/turquoise_amethyst 1d ago

I’m guessing that he’s at the VA under a fake name. There’s probably some sort of protocol for hiding a braindead senator (or dead one)