Published: February 2006
Medical privacy rights
There are efforts in Congress to modernize the healthcare system by funding the development and widespread use of information technology. Building a National Health Information Network (NHIN) and requiring that all medical records be kept in electronic form will exponentially increase privacy violations unless rights are restored to allow people to control who can see and use their personal health information (PHI).
Most people think their medical records are private. You probably believe:
- What you tell your doctor is totally private
- If you sign 'privacy notices' at a doctor's office, a pharmacy, a hospital, or a lab, your medical records will not be used or disclosed without your permission
- No one can look at your sensitive medical records, prescriptions, or tests without your permission
None of these assumptions are true.
Patient consent is no longer required to divulge medical records, no matter how embarrassing or intensely personal the contents may be. While your doctors may wish to protect your information, once the records are sent out of their offices, they can no longer control who can see or use your information. Sensitive medical records are now open for use by hundreds of thousands of businesses, employers, government agencies, insurance companies, billing firms, and all of their business associates, which may include pharmacy benefits managers and pharmaceutical companies as well as marketing firms and data-miners.
Guess what? You cannot refuse or object to the "routine" use and disclosure of your medical records. You will not receive any notice of "routine" uses and disclosures i.e., when someone has seen and used your personal health information (PHI). There are no audit trails of "routine" uses and disclosures, so there's no way to track if or when someone saw your information. Access to your medical records is retroactive, regardless of whether you paid out-of-pocket or were guaranteed privacy at the time this means your health records from birth-to-death are available to others.
There are efforts in Congress to modernize the healthcare system by funding the development and wide-spread use of information technology. We are not against the smart use of technology to help improve patient care and to reduce insurance costs. However, unfettered access to your personal health information must be stopped before these new medical technology plans are implemented.
Many advocates are working to prevent a wholesale sell out of medical privacy. One of them, Deborah Peel, an Austin, TX-based psychiatrist, has founded Patient Privacy Rights. Dr. Peel is a strong activist for the effective treatment of those with mental illness, addictions and child abuse and has worked in the arena of medical and patient privacy for more than a decade. As a psychiatrist, she understands that people will avoid or refuse necessary medical treatment if they think others can see or use their private and personal medical records.
Take a moment to sign the online Patient Privacy Rights Petition now.
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