Keith Ellison Accuser Suggests Twitter Keeps Deleting Her Doctor's Note Documenting Her Allegation

[DonViejo]

by Joseph A. Wulfsohn | Sep 19th, 2018, 11:23 pm

The woman who has made an abuse allegation against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) earlier this year has been very outspoken this week in the wake of the allegation against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

-snip-

On Wednesday, Monahan shared a medical record on Twitter, but suggested it wasn’t the first time she has done so.

Link to tweet

“When I post this, it gets deleted every time,” Monahan tweeted.

Her tweet has remained on her profile for at least twelve hours.

The record itself is dated November 28, 2017 was written by her physician, Dr. Jodi Milburn.

Milburn documents that Monahan was diagnosed with anemia, which she says explains her fatigue and menorrhagia.

The note makes direct reference to Ellison:

She states that she was in a very stressful environment for years, emotional and physical abuse by a partner with whom she is now separated. She did not have any physical injuries that require a physical examination in the past. She identifies the individual she was involved with as congressman Ellison, and she is worried about retribution if she identifies him publicly. She feels that she is in a safe enviroment now and she is following up with therapy and relaxation.

https://www.mediaite.com/online/keith-ellison-accuser-suggests-twitter-keeps-deleting-her-doctors-note-documenting-her-allegation/

[idcdu]

1. Idiot. She keeps posting personal info

That could easily lead to identity theft. Twitter is doing it right in this case.

[klook]

2. HIPAA violation

10 Common HIPAA Violations. This is #5. The OP, DU, and Mediaite should delete it as well.

[idcdu]

3. You are right

I sent an alert on this thread.

[LisaL]

6. Medical provider can not post your information. You can post your information if you want.

No law says you can't post your own freaking info on social media.

[d_r]

17. but do they know

that is the person posting it?

[FBaggins]

27. Yes and no

It wouldn't be illegal for you to release your own information... but that doesn't mean that you can post it to social media, because the social media company can absolutely protect itself from inappropriate releases of HIPAA-protected data by just refusing to allow any such data on the site. They're not in the business of determining who can and who cannot post such information so they just don't allow it at all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I hope that, in the unlikely event you get the thread hidden, you will talk to admin

to get them to reverse that. The letter was posted on Twitter by the patient it's about. Why would that be any kind of violation?

[Codeine]

14. That was wrong of you.

She posted this information. That is her prerogative.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. You're saying people aren't allowed to post their own medical records?

#5 doesn't say anything about that.

[klook]

8. Patients can share their own information. Reposting

it is questionable. I imagine that's why Twitter has deleted it, although the latest version has been on there for almost 24 hours.

I am not a lawyer, so maybe someone with legal expertise can opine on that question.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. So when it's clear that the patient wants to share it, everyone else is meant to do what they can

to stop that? That sounds silly to me.

[MrsCoffee]

12. Twitter gets it wrong all the time.

[LisaL]

5. This applies to a doctor or a nurse posting medical information on social media.

There is no violation if patient posts his or her medical information on social media. You can post whatever you want about your own health, you are not violating HIPAA when you do that.

[MrsCoffee]

9. Did you even read what you posted?

This is not any numbers on the list.

[Tarc]

10. Why are you lying about HIPAA?

That would be a violation if the health care provider posted the info.

This is the patient, posting about herself.

[Hortensis]

16. Guessing it's a misunderstanding rather than a lie.

Also guessing most of us can retweet once the owner of the medical record has posted it for the world to see.

But perhaps a different standard would apply to the people that law and others were written for, insurance companies, medical providers, transcriptionists, etcetera; wondering if maybe that would not constitute legal permission to ignore the dictates and intent of the law for them. Hmmm. ??

[kcr]

15. That's for employees. She can post them. That said, I don't believe twitter is deleting them. n/t

[Lee-Lee]

18. No, it's not a HIPPA violation. That's an absurd claim

And perhaps being made to try and silence a victim.

Only a health care provider, insurance companies, health plans, information clearing houses, or person otherwise in the health care system (like a contracted billing company, IT support maintaining health care records, etc) can committ a HIPPA violation.

If you are not paid for medical services or downstream in payment like IT for those providers HIPPA doesn’t apply to you. Specifically you have to accept insurance or federal payments for services for it to apply.

When I was running calls with the volunteer fire department our medical responders abided bun HIPPA voluntarily by policy. But because yeh department did not bill anyone for services legally HIPPA did not apply even though we were providing medical services.

In this case a patient voluntarily shared information. Therefore is not a violation for her to share it or anyone else to.

It’s a HIPPA violation is a covered entity like I explained above posts anything on social media. It’s not for anyone else. So if a paramedic whose ambulance company is a covered entity posts a photo of an accident victim it’s a violation. If a bystander does it is not a violation.

[forthemiddle]

19. This is in no way a HIPAA violation

The patient herself posted it.
No different than Dr Ford making her counseling notes available.

[WillowTree]

28. You need to read the paragraphs that preceed the 10 examples of violations.

HIPAA restricts what others can reveal about your medical information, not what you can reveal about your own info.

[Codeine]

13. Let's be a little more charitable

to a victim of sexual abuse trying to protect herself from smears, shall we?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

31. That would be nice... I support her. #MeToo

[forthemiddle]

20. So far 19 replies to this thread

And not one reply has anything to do with the victims claim.

Says alot about which victims we will believe, or which accused men we will not believe.

And in no way am I saying we should believe, or disbelieve either of them!
I just think that if we give the benefit of the doubt (and 20 miillion threads on DU) to one victim maybe we should do the same here, regardless of how much we like Ellison.

[kcr]

21. Look closer. My post was kind of dry, but I addressed it.

See, I don't believe Twitter has been deleting her medical record tweets because we can see them. I don't believe it's normal and rational to post your personal medical records openly on Twitter for all to see, to begin with. I think we're obligated to take all accusations seriously. I took hers seriously, and I don't find it credible.

[forthemiddle]

22. Can I honestly ask why she is not credible?

I didn't follow it too much, or think too much about it when she claimed she lost the phone video, but now we have medical records.

We are asked to believe Dr Ford because she saw a counselor, yet we don't believe her?

Dr Fords accusations are 36 years old, Ellisons are only 2.

Should he be forced to resign, and give up his run for Attorney General based on this allegation?

Should we insist on an investigation of the charges? Why or why not?

[kcr]

24. Several reasons

The main one being she never presented the tape she claims existed. The way the tape came about was hinky to begin with. Her son's FB post wasn't credible to me at all.

Then her texts she presented as evidence, which were choppy and clipped, painted a picture of a messy break up, with no evidence of abuse whatsoever. Ellison's texts were basically him asking when he should come get his stuff, and asking how her son is. Not so much as a swear word.

This medical record is nothing but a DX of anemia with the dr mentioning Ellison's name. There isn't even evidence that she was suffering physical symptoms of stress, like say, high blood pressure or migraines that I recall seeing. Not that by itself that would mean anything, but since there's no other evidence.

She may actually believe she's a victim of abuses. But there's no evidence. And given the chopped up texts and posting of medical records, I'm skeptical.

[forthemiddle]

25. Thanks for the answer

Can I follow up, and ask why (If you do) believe Dr Ford.
There is much less documentation with her account.


I really don't want to make it look like I don't believe her, because I do believe something happened, I just am so interested in the dynamics of both.

After all the smoke cleans, and Kavanaugh is either confirmed, or withdraws I would love to have a discussion on DU about when and why we believe certain victims. Do we automatically believe every accusation, because I'm afraid if thats the new normal we are going to be going down a very slippery slope.

I have a son, and a husband who both have female employees, and I honestly can't stand the thought that either of them can be accused, and quite honestly have no way to defend themselves. Neither of them would ever harm anyone (much less a woman), but that might not matter if we don't do some questioning of all accusations.

And again let me shout it from the rooftop, I believe Dr Ford!

[kcr]

30. It's not the quantity that matters

One can have tons of documentation that is seriously questionable, for instance. Another's claim may be based more on their own word and the support of others, but they have more credibility. People, like the claims themselves, aren't all alike. There's no demand for the outcome of any other type of instance to be judged the same. There's no logical reason why sexual assault claims should be. It's ludicrous.

Automatically believing every accusation no matter what is highly problematic for reasons that should be obvious. The discussion has been had over and over. I think a few people who claim that all accusations are to be automatically believed are misguided. But many if not most make the claim in bad faith to advance an ulterior agenda.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

23. We have a duty to consider all claims of abuse in good faith and listen to the facts.

We do not have a duty, however, to believe all facts or even give them the benefit of the doubt as you say.

To be completely honest, I haven't followed the Ellison allegations that closely thus far and I don't know the extent of the facts alleged, so I can't pass judgment one way or another.

I will say that the notion that we should naturally believe an accuser just because is a bad road to go down, even under the best of intentions. Because then we're asked if we should be forced to believe disgusting charlatans and proven liars like Juanita Broaddrick all in the interests of "zero tolerance" and equal treatment.

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. Investigate Investigate Investigate, had we done with with Al we would have him in the Senate

still.

[PatSeg]

32. Good point

I find it disturbing that we don't take such allegations seriously when it is against a Democrat. I don't know what the truth is, but it sure feels like some Democrats are doing to her what republicans are doing to Dr. Ford.

Throughout my life I've seen both men and women lie about an ex spouse or partner and I take that into consideration every time I hear such accusations, but an alleged victim should be heard without ridicule. People can believe her or not, but we certainly shouldn't be hypocrites.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

34. #MeToo

[kcr]

35. If you're taking into account that she's an ex-spouse/girlfriend

then I don't see how you're not being every bit the hypocrite as well. Or are you somehow picking and choosing just the right facts to assess before somehow magically coming to the conclusion that you're believing all women? Or is it really that you can pick and choose who to believe based on your excellent reasoning skills, and everyone else just sucks at it and is a hypocrite?

[PatSeg]

36. I'm really trying not to judge anyone here

And I honestly do not know what the truth is, but I do see people doing to Karen Monahan what republicans are doing to Dr. Ford. That sure sounds hypocritical to me.

I think your sarcasm is unwarranted and bit over the top.

[kcr]

37. If you see that, then please show where that's happening.

I certainly haven't seen that. All I see is the typical claims of hypocrisy every time there's heat on the GOP. The most egregious example was the infamous Al Franken debacle. Since there wasn't a handy scandal ripe at the time, they had to make one. The completely and utterly false notion that Dems don't hold our own responsible will live on because right-wingers are masters at spin.

[PatSeg]

38. You're entitled to your perspective

I don't see this as the same as the Al Franken allegations, which really did appear to be a right-wing hatchet job. That could be the case here, but so far I haven't seen the evidence.

"..then please show where that's happening" - if you can't see it, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

[kcr]

39. You're right. It's not the same thing as the Al Franken allegations

Not all allegations are the same, so why should we be obligated to look at them all the same way, particularly in politics. ESPECIALLY in politics. That actually goes to my point. The Al Franken allegations were a blatant hatchet job. I'm not saying that the accusation against Ellison is. I don't think it is. But the evidence does point to ex having a hard time getting over a bad breakup. Is it as obvious as the Franken case? No. But this is obviously a gray area. Anyone pointing at this case and claiming anyone who doesn't believe her is a hypocrite is someone with an agenda, IMO. Sorry.

[PatSeg]

40. Okay

I can see the possibility that all of this could be the result of a bad breakup. I have seen this happen before. I just noticed a lot of people are quick to jump all over her at the same time they are criticizing republicans for doing the same thing. Personally, I try to withhold judgment until there is more information.

I have heard both sides of many breakups and divorces, and I've often been surprised at how different the stories can be. Perceptions are often clouded by emotions and it can be hard to know what is really true.

[Merlot]

29. does she think this in some way validates her claims against Ellison?

All this is, is the doctor writing down what they were told by the patient.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

33. I support whatever a victim of abuse thinks helps her case. #MeToo