Richard Carmona Helping Injured Republican Has State GOP Spokesman Concerned About HIPAA Violations

When word got out last week that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Richard Carmona gave some medical advice to a Republican campaign worker with an apparent leg injury, fellow Democrats were loving the feel-good moment.

The Arizona Republican Party — or at least, its spokesman — is suspicious of a “hypothetical situation” that sounds almost exactly the same as the incident above.

In this “hypothetical situation,” Arizona GOP spokesman Shane Wikfors asks readers of the Sonoran Alliance blog, “Is this a violation of any medical ethics or HIPAA regulations?”

Sure, Carmona got some publicity from his impromptu analysis.

Carmona spokesman Andy Barr posted a picture of Carmona checking out the guy’s leg at a campaign event.

“After our tracker’s camera battery died, he asked [Carmona] about the bump on his leg,” the “tweet” says. “The [Surgeon General] diagnosed a hematoma.”

Now, to Wikfors’ “hypothetical situation.”

“Let’s say a doctor is out with associates in a public place. His associates are all staff members of his practice,” he writes. “One of the doctor’s staffers notices an individual who has a large growth on their arm. Although the individual is slightly bothered by the growth, they are not in any medical distress or emergency.”

Toward the end of this “hypothetical situation,” a staffer takes a photo and posts it on the Internet, along with the diagnosis and the person’s association.

“Is this a violation of any medical ethics or HIPAA regulations?” Wikfors asks.

Blasting Carmona’s camp for publicizing the event would’ve been the expected response if a response was really needed.

Wikfors writes that he’s going to “let the comments roll before [he provides] an update,” which we’ll guess won’t involve an FBI raid on the Carmona office for HIPAA violations.