Australia's National Rape Hotline Run By Insurance Company, Who Demands All Sorts Of Private Info

from the this-is-not-good dept

Mon, Oct 16th 2017 12:00pm — Mike Masnick

Australia is providing a fairly stunning case study in how not to set up a national hotline for sexual assault, rape, domestic abuse and other such situations. It has a service, called 1800Respect, which lets people call in and be connected to trained counselors from a variety of different call centers around the country. However, as Asher Wolf informs us, a change in how the system will be managed has created quite a shit storm, and leading one of the major providers of counselors to the program to remove itself from the program -- meaning that it will likely lose government funding and may go out of business entirely.

The issues here are a bit convoluted, but since its inception, 1800Respect has actually been run by a private insurance company, Medibank Health Solutions, who partners with organizations who can provide qualified counselors. One of the big ones is Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia (RDSVA). While it already seems somewhat troubling that a private insurance company runs the "national" rape and domestic violence hotline -- it's even more troubling when you find out that the company views the service as a profit center:

Earlier this year Medibank healthcare and strategy group executive Andrew Wilson told The Australian that the services offered, which include BeyondBlue, Nurses on Call and After-hours GP as well as 1800 RESPECT, are an active part of their business.

"We have put a stake in the ground and said we'd like to double the operating profit of this part of the business in the next three years."

Over the past year, Medibank changed how the service was run, having the first line of people responding to calls doing more of a triage effort to figure out who really needs to talk to a counselor and who can just be pointed to information. Medibank claimed this was to better serve callers' needs -- and to enable more people to reach a counselor, but there have been lots of concerns about this.

And it came to a head a few weeks ago, when RDSVA, whose contract with 1800Respect was up, announced that it was leaving the program entirely, in part because part of the new contract demands from Medibank would have involved having to hand over all of the confidential notes it had on callers.

The new 1800RESPECT contract written by Medibank required Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia to handover all client file notes resulting from the past six years of counselling for the 1800RESPECT service. We firmly believe that this would breach client confidentiality and contradict Australian privacy legislation.

This requirement causes even greater concern due to Medibank’s position that they will not evoke communications privilege to protect client confidence. Medibank have also provided limited guarantees for the protection of counselling notes if Medibank were to be sold. It is the view of Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia that this requirement of the contract cannot be met legally or ethically.

The concerns about Medibank are hardly theoretical. Just a couple years ago the company had a major security breach, sending all sorts of details on Australian military personnel to China.

RDVSA also notes other problems with the contract, including requiring that all notes be kept in an online service from Medibank, that RDVSA says it evaluated for its own needs and found that it was not sufficient. And then there's stuff about call recording, and whether or not those recordings will be protected from being accessed in a lawsuit:

Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia is deeply concerned that the new contract would require counsellors to sign an agreement directly with Medibank for their counselling calls to be recorded. Callers to 1800RESPECT may now experience not only the written documentation being provided to the Courts but they may also experience release of the voice recording.

Sexual assault and domestic violence services have worked over many years with government to establish communications privilege to protect client’s therapeutic records from being misused in legal proceedings. Medibank holds a position that it will not engage in communications privilege actions when client files are subpoenaed.

There's more to it as well, but especially when talking about information as sensitive as sexual assault hotline calls, which may create very real risks of more violence or even death for those who choose to call, the entire setup here sounds horrifying. The focus of such a hotline shouldn't be turning it into a larger profit center for an insurance company, but rather 100% focused on helping those calling in -- and that includes protecting their privacy.

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Filed Under: 1800respect, australia, domestic abuse, privacy, rape hoteline
Companies: medibank, rdvsa

30 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 12:06pm

Ah... so typical of government...
To let the foxes right into the hen house... provided they only promise to eat 1 each day instead of their fill each invasion.
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JoeCool (profile), 16 Oct 2017 @ 12:37pm

1800RESPECT
"You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."

"We have put a stake in the ground and said we'd like to double the operating profit of this part of the business in the next three years."

Remember that this person is talking about help for rape and abuse victims. This person is sick, and a prime representative of what is wrong with modern corporate executive management.
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Stephen T. Stone (profile), 16 Oct 2017 @ 12:42pm

“Profiting from rape” sounds like the sort of shit you would see in a trashy, low-rent, made-in-five-days video game made by a basement-dwelling MRA.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 1:02pm

Re:
What does a Magnetic Resonance Angiogram have to do with it?
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orbitalinsertion (profile), 16 Oct 2017 @ 1:13pm

Re: Re:
While Magnetic Resonance Angiograms are generally basement-dwelling, i think they miss on the other criteria.
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Machin Shin, 16 Oct 2017 @ 1:17pm

Re:
"Profiting from rape" is actually a sadly common place thing in real life. One of the big driving forces in human trafficking.

So kind of sad that the hotline setup to help people get out of situations where they are being exploited is just trying to exploit them in a different way.
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Will B., 16 Oct 2017 @ 1:29pm

Ladies and gentlemen:
Capitalism.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 1:40pm

We need our profit centers to generate additional profits, the stock holders are demanding it !!!!

Sooooo, we need more people to commit rape - brilliant!
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 2:05pm

In Australia, rape hotline rapes you.
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J.R., 16 Oct 2017 @ 2:06pm

Shareholder value
That's all the bean-counters care about. If they figure they can make more money by blackmailing rape victims they will cheerfully do that. I'd call them POND-scum, but real pond-scum has no choice. BEAN-COUNTERS DO.
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That One Guy (profile), 16 Oct 2017 @ 3:18pm

'Sexual assault'? Bah, we can top that
"We have put a stake in the ground and said we'd like to double the operating profit of this part of the business in the next three years."

Do not pass Go. Do not collect a government contract. Go straight to Get The Hell Out of Here You Sick Bastard.

That they are flat out admitting that they see it as a business, and one they want to see become more profitable should be all that's needed to give them a very public boot, replaced by someone who actually cares for the victims rather than how much money can be made from them.
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Alexander, 16 Oct 2017 @ 3:33pm

Re: 'Sexual assault'? Bah, we can top that
This is kind of a textbook definition of rent seeking.

Gubmnt can't run things efficiently we have to privatise this to make it efficient. I know a guy who could do this for us. No, no, I am not related to him, we met at a networking event. [fails to disclose wife is director of same company]

Our NeoCons are very heavy on the Con, pretty heavy on the grift and not remotely Neo, totally old school and predictable.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 4:54pm

Re:
It is under-regulated, predatory crony Capitalism.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 5:22pm

Re: Re: 'Sexual assault'? Bah, we can top that
neocon says it all; new con just like the old con only...wait for it...on the internet
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Dan (profile), 16 Oct 2017 @ 6:19pm

it's even more troubling when you find out that the company views the service as a profit center:

Of course it does. If it's a private company, and it's providing a service by contract, it's doing so to make a profit. Which leads back to the question of whether a private company should be running this hotline at all, but if you accept that, of course it's going to be for profit.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 6:46pm

1800 RESPECT deals with a very serious issue and I'm not trying to downplay that. Another service provided, BeyondBlue, deals with callers suffering depression and suicide. Are callers' details from this being recorded and handed over for profit as well? These are times people will be at the lowest points in their lives.

Nurses on Call and After Hours GP - while not as serious - may also be dealing with very private details.

What other services are provided that are selling details of caller's most intimate, private and possibly devastating details of their lives?

It's good to see RDVSA take a stand. I hope the other organisations providing support take a similar stand. If Medibank can't get its act together, the government needs to step in and ensure these calls remain strictly private. These resources are too valuable to lose to greed.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 7:00pm

Re: Re:
Oh, look, it's a socialist!
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 7:04pm

Re:
Which is why no one with any sense should call any of these so-called "help" lines.
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Will B., 16 Oct 2017 @ 7:42pm

Re: Re: Re:
As a matter of fact, yes, it is. ^.^
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Alexander, 16 Oct 2017 @ 7:43pm

Re: Re: Re:Over Here
Over here.
Yep me.

Socialism works...
I can go to hospital with Kidney Stones, spend a week in hospital and have them disintegrated by cystoscopy and it didn't cost me a single $, not even to get on the Hospital WiFi or for the really good painkillers I took home afterwards.
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Will B., 16 Oct 2017 @ 7:44pm

Re:
I would have assumed that the insurance company was given some sort of government contract for the hotline, and that ought to provide for all the profit such a thing would need; but of course, that'll never be *enough* profit for shareholders.
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k-h, 16 Oct 2017 @ 7:57pm

Actually this is a political fight that is not as clear cut as you make out:

https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2017/08/1800respect-set-overhaul-change-service-providers/
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2017 @ 8:30pm

Re: Re: Re:
Oh look, it's another dumb-ass with no ability to process complexity or subtlety.
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Cowardly Lion, 17 Oct 2017 @ 5:35am

Re: 1800RESPECT
+1 You beat me to it. I don't know about sick, but Andrew Wilson definitely lacks a soul.
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Wendy Cockcroft, 17 Oct 2017 @ 5:36am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Oh, lookee here, boogeyman politics! You're wasting your time, AC, we're not idiots here.
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Cowardly Lion, 17 Oct 2017 @ 6:00am

Re: 'Sexual assault'? Bah, we can top that
Speaking of Hell... it needs more circles.

Sat outside his hut on the frozen lake, when asked by enquirers "wherefore are the corporate vultures, the evildoers in suits?", with ineffable sadness Satan would simply point downwards, and with a look of genuine shame, utter these words; "I'm sorry. Really, really sorry".
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Sok Puppette (profile), 17 Oct 2017 @ 6:42am

Re: Ah... so typical of government...
Usually the reason this stuff gets farmed out to private contracts is that a bunch of "government can't do anything right" ideologues have forced it to be.

Just saying...
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2017 @ 8:18am

Does the helpline ask if it was a legitimate rape?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2017 @ 8:40pm

Re: Re: Privatised government company
Medibank used to be a government run health insurance company to keep the private insurers from overcharging. Then a couple of years ago the Liberal(Right wing) government sold it off to private concerns & now despite Ministers saying that the health insurance premiums must stay at a reasonable level the annual increases are now starting to increase far beyond inflation due to the whole industry now being completely run by private companies.

So at one stage this program was government run and doing what it was supposed to do, help those who needed help, now it helps shareholders instead. No surprise there!
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The Wanderer (profile), 20 Oct 2017 @ 2:49pm

Re: 1800RESPECT
There's something which I first started saying years ago, and have let fall by the wayside since then, but which is still just as true as it ever was:

"Nothing which has any significant purpose beyond making money should ever be controlled by people whose only interest is the bottom line."
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