Federal agency investigates porn industry clinic
Federal officials are investigating whether a clinic that tests adult film performers for sexually transmitted diseases violated their privacy by requiring them to sign overly broad disclosure agreements.
Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a San Fernando-based clinic, is being investigated by the regional civil rights office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in San Francisco, according to a federal spokesman.
The investigation was prompted by a complaint by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based group that has advocated for condom use and increased testing among porn performers. It was the first time the group had made such a complaint, said Tom Myers, the foundation’s general counsel since 1998.
The foundation previously complained to state and county officials about health safety lapses in the adult film industry. In March, the group succeeded in persuading state health officials to form an advisory panel to consider added protections, including requiring performers to use condoms. The panel is scheduled to meet for the first time June 29.
Foundation officials complained in February that the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation was violating patients’ privacy rights by requiring them to sign “an overbroad, irrevocable” consent to disclose their test results “to whomever AIM deems appropriate, in perpetuity” in order to be tested.
On Friday, Myers received a letter from federal officials saying the foundation had provided sufficient evidence of privacy violations to merit an investigation.
“If some performers are OK with it, that’s fine,” Myers said of the disclosure agreements. “But not all performers are … and under the law, to make the disclosure sufficient, the performers have to be provided with certain information,” including who is authorized to receive test results, for what purpose and until what date.
A federal investigator assigned to the case and officials from the clinic did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment Friday afternoon.
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