Rufo, who reviewed the records himself before publishing the
initial article, denies that the documents exposed the personal information of patients. “For my own part, I can confirm that nothing in the information provided to me identified any individual; all the documents were, in fact, carefully redacted,” the journalist wrote in his
latest City Journal story, in which he broke the news that Haim had been indicted.
Assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas Tina Ansari, whose office is leading the criminal investigation, argues Haim had no right to share the medical records of minor patients with the public.
However, she neglected to mention that the documents disclosed were not patient charts, were redacted to protect sensitive patient information, and complied with HIPAA, which permits anonymized information to be disclosed generally, and even protected information can be publicized if it’s used to stop egregious medical misconduct.
Haim and Ansari’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.