What kind of lawyerly logic supports this decision? (Alternative link.)
An authoritative new ruling by the Justice Department sharply limits the government's ability to prosecute people for criminal violations of the law that protects the privacy of medical records.
The criminal penalties, the department said, apply to insurers, doctors, hospitals and other providers - but not necessarily their employees or outsiders who steal personal health data.
No lawyers that I know or have read discussing HIPAA support such an interpretation. And it certainly undercuts the Federal government's push for electronic medical records. Strange.
One assumes that it will be reversed somewhere in the Justice Department or (one hopes) by Congress.
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