Jul 24, 2011

This Could Happen At A Social Security Office

From TPM Media:
Stop me if you've heard this one. A man goes into a public assistance office in Charleston, South Carolina in a kilt, tells them he's a member of the Irish Republican Army and asks for help for 25 fellow Irishmen in a hospital who need Medicaid.
A government employee follows the rules and explains the process for filling out a Medicaid paperwork and the qualifications they'd need to meet. She informs them that a federal law intended to protect patient privacy requires her not to divulge any information he's told her.
So what happens next? James O'Keefe's Project Veritas releases a deceptively edited video that makes the woman look like a terrorist sympathizer, though it isn't even clear if she knows the background of the IRA. ...
[And more on what happened at that public assistance office] The South Carolina Heath & Human Services employee explains that only U.S. citizens are eligible for Medicaid and says she's not making any promises that the 25 purported IRA members would qualify. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The issue is not her adherence to HIPPA, but rather her obligation to take an application from someone who asks to make an application. This battle has been fought for years at SSA and Medicaid and a dozen other type agencies - workers who discourage people from applying because the worker believes the applicant will not qualify, or workers who don't explain that there are different programs for which the person may apply. It's her job to take an application, ask for appropriate documentation and reject the application if that is warranted.

O'Keefe needs to find a real job, or a more productive hobby.

Anonymous said...

O'Keefe's Arab sheik sting against National Public Radio was as good as it gets. Exposed flagrant anti-Jewish, pro-Palestinian bias. Their honcho wouldn't have resigned if she didn't look like an absolute fool.

Anonymous said...

Um, let's not forget the ACORN scam, the break-in of Sen. Mary Landrieu's office, and the attempted besmirching of the female CNN reporter. Anyone who thinks O'Keefe is worthy of even a nanosecond of media coverage is sadly misled.

Anonymous said...

in fact, she might have thought she was helping out some needy republicans.