Busted! Another Kansas Attorney Bites Dust!

 

Phill Kline, former Attorney General of Kansas, just lost his license to practice law indefinitely, in Kansas, because of unethical conduct while he represented the state of Kansas during his "reign" as Attorney General. It seems that most of the complaints filed against him involved his obsession with womens' medicine, specifically reproductive rights and obstetric needs, and undue attention given to any clinic that offered therapeutic abortion. The items for which the Kansas Bar Association did not particularly care include, but are not limited to: giving false testimony to a judge, making false statements to the Supreme Court, allowing a member of his staff to take medical records from a clinic to her home for several weeks and stating that the records were being kept in a secure facility! (so much for doctor/patient confidentiality and hipaa) He was also faulted for seeking a subpoena from the Grand Jury without informing them of the actual law in the involved case; in other words, he wanted them to grant him carte blanche in a matter with no regard for the law. Today, in a surprising decision, the Kansas Bar Association has determined that it might not be a good idea for such an attorney to continue to practice law. Who could possibly have seen that coming?

In addition to the above unethical conduct, "the court found Friday that when he was attorney general, Kline committed misconduct by instructing members of his staff to attach sealed documents to a publicly filed document in violation of a Supreme Court order. He also told staff to file a court pleading that contained misleading information."

Whoa! Wait a minute! Back up the truck.............

Is it really unlawful and unethical for a prosecutor to file court pleadings that contain misleading information? Say it ain't so! Has anyone told the prosecutor in Marshall County? Hahaha! But seriously, folks, Kline was found to have committed eleven serious ethical violations since 2003. It's a shame the Kansas Bar Association did not seek disbarment.

 

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/10/18/3065275/kansas-supreme-court-indefinitely.html#storylink=cpy

Medical Information And Privacy

Have you ever wondered exactly what constitutes a beach in medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or "HIPAA"? Or, have you ever felt certain that your rights to privacy concerning your medical information had been violated, but not known how to file a complaint, or with whom to file a complaint? As it happens, if your privacy has accidently or deliberately been breached in some way...say....the emergency department at your local hospital accidently sent your bill to another person, business, or government agency, instead of to you; and your injury, hospital visit, and insurance information are now common knowledge among people of whom you have never seen or heard, there is information provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about exactly what is lawful and what is not lawful concerning the sharing of medical information. In a case such as the one above, the hospital would have sixty days to notify you that the breach had occurred, and would also be required to notify DHHS of the breach. DHHS even offers the convenience of an online link for the filing of a complaint and reminds everyone of the fact that it is against the law for any healthcare provider to retaliate in any way against a person who has filed a complaint.