On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Person of interest in custody after shooting in Chicago suburb
At least six people are dead. Plus, health reporter Adrianna Rodriguez looks at whether HIPAA can protect against anti-abortion laws, a hearing is scheduled for a lawsuit to stop a Mississippi abortion law, health enterprise reporter Ken Alltucker explains how some hospitals don’t comply with price listing and Wimbledon singles quarterfinals begin.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things You Need to Know Tuesday, the 5th of July, 2022. Today, the latest from the Chicago area 4th of July shooting, plus HIPAA laws and abortion, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- US officials have concluded that gunfire from Israeli positions likely killed Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. The veteran Palestinian American correspondent was shot and killed while covering an Israeli military raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
- $750 billion. That’s how much Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it’s estimated to cost to rebuild Ukraine. He’s calling on the world to help in the process.
- Basketball star, Brittney Griner has sent President Joe Biden a letter pleading for help. Griner is still detained in Russia and said she fears she may never return home.
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A person of interest is in custody today after a gunman on a rooftop opened fire during a 4th of July parade in a Chicago suburb. At least six people were killed and 30 injured. Authorities spent hours yesterday searching for the person of interest, Robert E. Crimo. He was arrested just before 7:00 local time last night after a short pursuit. Witness, Kate Rappel, saw the arrest.
Kate Rappel:
All this law enforcement just surrounded this car that was turning, and they had the dogs out, they had, I mean, their guns drawn.
Taylor Wilson:
Authorities said digital evidence helped lead them to Crimo. The identities of those killed in the shooting in the town of Highland Park have not been released by authorities, but at least one of those killed was a Mexican national. For more on this developing story, stay with USATODAY.com.
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Can HIPAA laws protect you from anti-abortion laws? Health Reporter Adriana Rodriguez tells us what to know about medical privacy rights.
Adriana Rodriguez:
So, HIPAA, which is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is a federal law that was passed in the nineties to set a national standard for protecting a person’s medical information without their knowledge or consent. But HIPAA has something called the privacy rule, which allows the use and disclosure of protected health information in certain situations, like when law enforcement is involved. So, law enforcement can use a court order, a warrant, a subpoena, or an administrative request to require a provider to disclose a patient’s medical information without their consent. Generally, legal experts say that would not be violating HIPAA. So, if let’s say a patient goes to a healthcare provider, either seeking abortion or maybe they’re suspected of attempting an abortion in a state where that’s against the law. If law enforcement has that court order, they can go to the healthcare provider and request medical information of that patient without their consent.
The one way that most states are looking at how to strengthen HIPAA is when it comes to the right to travel. So for people in states where abortion may be banned or restricted, travel to other states that have access to abortion, right now, there is still that right to travel. But let’s say that there are some sort of laws in another state where they want to prosecute somebody who did that. Some states who have abortion access are trying to strengthen their medical privacy laws, so that they can’t be compelled by law enforcement from another state to divulge that person’s medical information.
Two things I think is important to know is that not everything is covered under HIPAA, only healthcare facilities that participate in federal healthcare programs, and are considered covered entities. So, for example, period tracking apps or calorie counting apps, that wouldn’t be covered under HIPAA. Also, some crisis pregnancy centers are not covered. So sort of be careful about where you’re going and what you’re divulging, what kind of medical information you’re divulging to your personal mobile apps. Then something that’s also important to know is that if you think that your HIPAA rights were violated, you can’t just turn around and sue the company or the hospital. HIPAA is enforced by the Office for Civil Rights at the Health and Human Services Department, so you would have to file a claim with them if you think that your HIPAA rights were violated.
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Taylor Wilson:
A hearing is set today for a lawsuit filed to prevent Mississippi from enforcing its abortion trigger law. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the state’s last abortion provider, and filed the suit. They argue that Mississippians have a state constitutional right to abortion that was confirmed by a 1998 State Supreme Court ruling that held the “Right to privacy, includes an implied right to choose whether or not to have an abortion,” according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. But the state’s Republican attorney general published notice of a trigger law that would take effect 10 days after the Supreme Court ended constitutional abortion protections. Under the law, any person who knowingly performs or attempts to induce an abortion, except the pregnant person, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.
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A federal law requires hospitals to post prices and establish two separate consumer friendly price lists for 300 common procedures and services. But Health Enterprise Reporter Ken Alltucker says that many are not in compliance.
Ken Alltucker:
A study in JAMA, a medical journal early last month found that fewer than half of hospitals were complying with either part of the law, that’s the consumer friendly searchable database, as well as the more detailed database for researchers. Now, Medicare, the agency that oversees Medicare enforces this, and what they tell me is they’ve sent out hundreds of letters to hospitals that initially did not comply. Some of those came under compliance, for those that didn’t, they sent follow up corrective notices. So, that’s the process they’re taking right now. Two hospitals so far have been fined, both are in the Atlanta area. Collectively, they’re part of the same chain, and they were fined more than 1 million.
Now, some consumer advocates are saying that the Medicare agency is not being forceful enough on this. But hospitals have a completely different take, they say some of these studies rely on outdated data. The JAMA study, as I mentioned earlier, did rely on data as of the end of September, so it may not have the most up to date numbers. The hospitals are also in the midst of a pandemic still, they say that they’re having challenges dedicating the staff to this. During the pandemic, certainly, they were busy with lots of patients, and emergency type situations during various waves of COVID. So, they were really busy with that, they say, and they didn’t necessarily have the bandwidth to dedicate IT people, the back office people who would have to do these type of administrative tasks to it. But now they say they are, and hospitals are slowly, gradually becoming more in compliance with this.
Taylor Wilson:
For more, find a link to Ken’s full story in the episode description.
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Singles quarterfinals begin today at Wimbledon. Two unseeded German players, Tatjana Maria, and Jule Niemeier face off in the women’s bracket. Then it’s third seated Ons Jabeur against Marie Bouzkova. On the men’s side top seed Novak Djokovic takes on number 10, Jannik Sinner, and No. 9, Cameron Norrie will play David Goffin. Taylor Fritz is an action tomorrow on the men’s side, along with Amanda Anisimova, as the last remaining American singles players in the tennis tournament. You can tune in on ESPN and check the full schedule with USA TODAY Sports.
And you can find new episodes of 5 Things every morning on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your audio. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.