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Prying Eyes: The End of Medical Privacy
(Charlotte Twight, FoxNews, January 21, 2003)
The truth is that the federal government already has asserted virtually unlimited discretionary power to examine our personal medical records -- without a court order, without a warrant based on probable cause, without any judicial process whatsoever. Law-abiding citizens are the predominant targets and most likely victims of this unprecedented snooping by the U.S. government. . . . For example, health care providers covered by these rules "must permit access" by the secretary of Health and Human Services to the covered entity's "facilities, books, records, accounts, and other sources of information, including protected health information." That means your individual medical records. If the HHS secretary so demands, the physician or other covered entity "must permit access by the secretary at any time and without notice." In a heartbeat your medical records thus may be put in the hands of federal officials, with no judicial process required. . . . For example, uses and disclosures of personal medical information for "health oversight activities" do not require patient authorization. Moreover, HIPAA does not authorize effective legal restraints on redisclosure of our medical information once it is given to a third party such as a business associate of a health care provider. . . . But the coup de grace to our medical privacy apparently may soon be delivered by the federal government's Total Information Awareness program, headed by John Poindexter and developed under the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) umbrella. Many now know the broad outlines of TIA, the Orwellian plan by the federal government to develop broad, interconnected electronic databases about virtually every aspect of the lives of law-abiding Americans. . . . Today, a law-abiding citizen's only opportunity to keep his or her medical information out of government hands is to find physicians who are opting out of the standardized electronic database system. To opt out, physicians must avoid transmitting any health information electronically in connection with transactions covered by the regulations, thereby qualifying for the "country doctor" exception to the federal database requirements. Those who limit their practice in this way are not considered to be "covered entities" and thus are not subject to the "privacy" regulations.
[Comment: If you value your privacy, you may want to read this entire article. It contains much more information than has been posted here.]

posted by LoZo 5:31 PM