Jimmy Carter will be taking Keytruda

[rph3664]

Just as I thought, it's one of those new quasi-experimental drugs that has a 6-figure price tag for a course of therapy. Oh, I'm sure Medicare will pay for it and all that; has anyone else seen orders for it? Do practitioners feel it works? I realize that cancer treatment for a 90-year-old, regardless of what that cancer is, is dicey at best.

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[trailerpark]

Is this a HIPAA violation?

 

[trap]

Well, considering it's being reported in the Washington Post... and the wording of the story implies that it's Carter himself that named the drug he's taking...

 

[awval999]

Is this a HIPAA violation?

[ ] understands HIPAA

 

[awval999]

Just as I thought, it's one of those new quasi-experimental drugs that has a 6-figure price tag for a course of therapy. Oh, I'm sure Medicare will pay for it and all that; has anyone else seen orders for it? Do practitioners feel it works? I realize that cancer treatment for a 90-year-old, regardless of what that cancer is, is dicey at best.

For one, Carter has the money to pay for it in cash. He just wrote a book and all.

Two, I'm sure the advertising is worth enough for Merck to give him the treatment for free.

Three, I am sure they are (very quietly) making arrangements for his presidential state funeral

 

[297point1]

It wasn't a generation ago when congressional Republicans were asking - no, DEMANDING - that Bill Clinton release his medical records so that everyone could learn if he had been treated for syphilis / herpes / chlamydia and heaven knows what else.

Can I call it progress that nobody is calling for Hillary (or Donald Trump) to do the same in 2015?

 

[npage148]

Nope, we are just hung up on a Birth certificate instead

 

[rph3664]

Is this a HIPAA violation?

No. I saw it on the news. If anyone did violate HIPAA, it wasn't me.

 

[NateRobinson]

The reason why he makes it public knowledge is because Merck is going to give it to him for free. MILLIONS of people now know what Keytruda is. Millions of people that didn't know what it was prior to that.

It's genius marketing on their part. They probably contacted him and said they would give it to him for free for however long he needs it just so long as he makes it common knowledge.