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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can US Senators Speak English?

I've become a great fan of HIPAA since being dragged kicking and screaming into the corporate world, because "we need to devote some time to protecting our users' privacy, because not doing that would be irresponsible" does not move The Powers That Be, but "we need to devote some time to protecting our users' privacy because HIPAA" does, The Powers That Be not caring about all about doing things right if it costs them money but caring quite a bit about avoiding legal troubles. I like regulations that force The Powers That Be to let me do things closer to right. Without them I have to lie a lot...

I hated it when I worked at a nonprofit, when we only had to pay attention to it when it turned out to proscribe something strictly inferior to what we planned to do.





b_b  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Haha. Glad someone has found a positive use for it. Had a long conversation last night about the virtues of using a fax machine, because it's the easiest way to stay compliant. In 2016. 2.0.1.6. Fax machines.

kleinbl00  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

There's an app for that. My wife faxes shit from her iPad a half dozen times a day.

b_b  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Go on...

user-inactivated  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

There are several services that do fax-via-email. hellofax is one.

b_b  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    All transmissions are encrypted with bank-grade level of security.

Sounds interesting. Thanks. thenewgreen ecib

thenewgreen  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

According to elfassy, once you use this it's not longer compliant. Let's just build it out fully compliant without fax bandaids

thenewgreen  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

elfassy Look at this please

kleinbl00  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  
OftenBen  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I have to send prescriptions to a pharmacy within my own institution by fax, because they refuse to receive them any other way, because somebody emailed them for narcotics once.

user-inactivated  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Like someone emailed a prescription, or someone just asked for narcotics? If the latter, did they get them?

OftenBen  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The former, but didn't include some obscure kind of e-signature that's no longer used. Made it look fraudulent.

user-inactivated  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well, that's not nearly as funny.

kleinbl00  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It is truly a blunt tool for good.

I've been known to rant rather a lot about the Americans with Disabilities Act and the twisted and ridiculous ways in which it is used. But the fact of the matter is, it's done an awful lot to allow disabled individuals to lead more normal, more comfortable lives. HIPAA is similar - it's a broad set of guidelines that permit people to sue over privacy which is more than the Constitution allows.

b_b  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I agree with you. I think the problem comes in when the regulation itself seems like more of an ends than a means. All in all the world is better with HIPAA and especially ADA; getting there takes some wacky turns, however.

kleinbl00  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Had a boss who got to have lunch with some of the people who wrote the ADA. They copped to the fact that their legislation was deliberately vague on the presumption that caselaw would refine the regs.

In plain English, "We expect a lot of people to be sued over their interpretations of our wording, and we see that as a good thing."

b_b  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hell, we're still seeing new case law on Title IX more than 50 years later. I expect as more conditions are recognized as disabilities that ADA will have the same fate for years to come.

kleinbl00  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If 2% of all parking spots must be handicapped spots, it stands to reason that 2% of drivers will eventually be handicapped in the eyes of the law.

snoodog  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Laws aren't designed that way but in engineering world 2% might instead be a number that could guarantee sufficient access 95% of the time. Also according to Google 1/10 of all Americans have a severe disability so 2% is actually an underrepresented portion if you don't account for other factors

user-inactivated  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I have seen a couple of programs for subsets of homeless people never actually serve anyone because the subset of homeless people they were allowed to serve turned out to be empty.

user-inactivated  ·  3124 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think the worst I've ever gotten from the ADA has been needing to give screen readers something to say for visualizations and other features that are only useful if you can see, rather than just letting them ignore things that are useless to their users. I'm sure everyone using a screenreader just moves on without a second thought, but I always felt like drawing their attention to things they couldn't use was a little too much like taunting them.