Originally Posted by
Earthboundmsfit
What triggered the DAL pilot to get caught
and then prosecuted? Must have been a significant event involving being incapacitated in flight.
Nope.
HIPAA probably prevents federal agencies from sharing or searching health records willy-nilly with no probable cause.
But there's no such proscription for FINANCIAL records.
So the FAA has arranged cross-checks with VA and SSA to match pilots who are getting federal disability payments. Then the FAA simply reviews your medical application to verify that you reported disability income. Box 18(y) was added to the form in the recent past, and there's a reason for that.
If you check "no" on 18(y) but are in receipt of disability income they now have probable cause for DOJ to investigate you for falsifying your 8500... they (DOJ) can get all your medical records at that point. Easy-peasy. They bagged a bunch of SSA disability recipients as well as some vets recently.
They could presumably do the same with state disability.
If you have an incident/accident then they would also be able to access health records as part of the investigation.
It's kind of like cheating on your taxes, "no big deal, everybody does it"... until you get on their radar and then it is a big deal.