Texas attorney general requests transgender youths’ patient records from Georgia

[Jessica_Rose]

Texas attorney general requests transgender youths' patient records from Georgia clinic

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-attorney-general-requests-transgender-youths-patient-records-from-georgia-clinic/ar-BB1hjCs8?cvid=411ee2a855164393997c99e3c5305892&ei=8

Story by Madaleine Rubin (26 Jan 2024)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is requesting medical records of Texas youth who have received gender-affirming care from a Georgia telehealth clinic, marking at least the second time he's sought such records from providers in another state.

The clinic, QueerMed, confirmed on Friday morning that they received the request. QueerMed said it stopped servicing youth in Texas after the state banned transition-related care last year. The clinic's founder said the attorney general requested information about patients dating back to Jan. 1, 2022, before the ban took effect.

The clinic said that Paxton asked for private information about Texas residents who were provided with telehealth care in Texas before the ban, and residents provided with care outside of Texas after the ban. The request, they said, nearly mirrors one the attorney general sent to Seattle Children's Hospital last year.

Paxton asked Seattle Children's for a variety of patient information, including the number of Texas children they have treated, medications prescribed to children, the children's diagnoses and the name of Texas laboratories where tests for youth are administered.

In response to that request, known as a civil investigative demand, Seattle Children's sued the Texas Office of the Attorney General in December.

[D'Amalie]

Protected Health information isn't it?  As long nothing criminal, the gov't doesn't get access.
No?  Attorney weigh in please?

[Iztaccihuatl]

Those requests usually come cloaked as a 'medical malpractice investigation', i.e. they are claiming a criminal investigation because then the medical providers have to turn over records. Like last year when Tennessee 'investigated' Vanderbilt University gender clinic and they did turn over records.