CTDummy

I think we’re conflating some adjacent things here. There’s a good amount of people I can see in here calmly explaining the “he’s billionaire and that’s bad” angle which are all around Lemmy. Hence the quoted, although admittedly poor analogy. No problem blocking or muting the separate zealots as you mentioned before. I do it all the time. Unfortunately those you’re referring view those type of “civil” leftist as also the enemy. Its why I block some of the instances I do.

Sure I don’t disagree (and it’s a big problem for Lemmy) but it cuts both ways right? That’s the same as going “but I like cheeseburgers” in a vegan comm. Even if Gabe personally is good (I and a majority of people have no idea really) he still exist in a system where a select few are hoovering up disproportionate amounts of the wealth. That’s all, it doesn’t mean Gabe personally has to answer to capitalism. Just that unfortunately he exists in it and due to his position people aren’t gonna like him for it and I get that.

That said plenty of people claim to hate him for that but just hate him in general and would do so even if he wasn’t as wealthy, as an aside. I don’t think I saw many subs specifically for Linux hate on reddit when I was there but they exist here lol. Perks of the platform I guess.

3/4 into my comment. My point is, there’s always going to be people here that downvote the guy. It’s like complaining about the weather. The “all billionaires are bad” types aren’t really interested in the one exception, if he can even be qualified as that. That’s all. Who cares, compliment him anyway and they can shit on billionaires. They aren’t even necessarily mutually exclusive imo.

I like Gabe to be clear but come on. Even if he just isn’t as shit as the others, the guy clearly knows to separate his public and private profiles. This guy knew that him simply hammering three times on something was going to be dissected by 1 million nerds and used to confirm a game that never came.

Let’s not forget that Valve essentially made a significant portion of their money selling gambling to kids. He’s “better than others” sure, that’s because the others are so subsumed by their narcissism, they’re doing Nazi salutes on podiums while gutting welfare and spouting stale memes. It’s not exactly a high bar to stumble over.

Why would email get lost, intercepted, or misdirected (compared to SMS)?

Email is not a very secure means of communicating. Generally emails are encrypted between each relay, but at them, they sit there until it’s encrypted again for the next hop. Email in general is not super secure unless you set up some form of encryption, like openpgp for example. The clinic also can’t necessarily determine if you’ve have the account one day, or whether it’s been compromised the next.

If you use email in a browser, that’s a whole new set of potential attack vectors (MiTM for example). Healthcare providers pay out the nose for secure messaging and email services (so your specialist can transmit results/findings to your GP for example). Which requires both parties to have specialised paid software.

In my experience, they don’t seem to verify or identify a patient by address. Even if I give them a fake one, they accept it. If they ever need to send something later, they’ll just confirm the address with you again. So I’d rather give them somewhere to send it, like a PO box, when they actually need it.

I would caution anyone about providing false information to healthcare providers. They may not necessarily immediately work it out but if your information is checked against a third party (certain medications are checked against a database or governing body if they’re scheduled/have high abuse potential) and found not to match, issues may arise. Like important medication scripts being cancelled. Still got that medication? You now possess a controlled substance without legal justification. This one of a myriad of reasons this is a bad idea.

In your experience, do they share a patient’s address, phone number, and medical info with any third party? Or does it stay within that practice permanently?

I don’t live in the capitalism funhole that is the US as a disclaimer. From my understanding, not without your permission (I.e. a GP suggest you see a specialist, you accept, they then coordinate and potentially, with your consent, send the referral). The only exception I can think of is providing information to law enforcement if you break the law at the practice (e.g. threaten staff, become violent etc). Breaching confidentiality is a big deal in the healthcare profession.

Generally they’ll retain your records while you’re an active patient and a minimum time after. When you become inactive, you can request a copy of your patient summary information. Though here I believe after a certain time, lacking any instruction, they’re obligated to de-identify and destroy patient records.

Depending on local laws they may not due to, ironically enough, privacy and sensitive information laws. In fact beyond appointment scheduling I’ve yet to go to a practice that used email in any meaningful way. Even getting my health summary info to transfer between practices, I had to do a whole song and dance that essentially equates to “we’re sending you all this but if it gets lost, intercepted or misdirected, you agree that’s your problem because we told you email is bad”.

They usually need an address to verify who you are (Medicare, benefits, script confirmation, patient differentiation) and a number so they can contact you regarding follow up’s (again to come in, not to discuss meaningful information). Keep in mind, practices, hospitals, etc also deal with drug seekers and mentally unwell individuals.

Beyond personal/sensitive information laws; they also want you to come in for any follow up/results because healthcare professionals like being paid for their time and up until Telehealth, couldn’t typical bill for phone calls. I get desiring privacy but given you’re going to be discussing and sharing personal health information with a clinician, this all seems a bit pointless tbh. Hence ol mate thinking this is a troll question I would guess.

When I worked for a family medical practice, many moons ago, if a patient refused to provide “demographic” information like this, we likely would just decline them as a patient, for liability reasons if nothing else.