Slashdot Mirror
Medical Privacy Rules To Be Gutted
Logic Bomb writes "The San Francisco Chronicle says the Bush administration wants to loosen privacy rules for medical records in a variety of ways. It's the sort of arrangement where insurance companies are drooling but everyone else, from doctors to Democrats, is screaming bloody murder." Not really a surprise, given the current administration. The rules proposed during the Clinton administration would have substantially protected the privacy of medical records - keeping your HMO, insurer and pharmacy from selling information about your health without your permission. Doesn't look like they're going to go into effect, though.
That phrase about making a "good faith effort" to obtain written permission is crap! I'm self-employed and just switched medical plans. About a week after enrolling, I get a letter explaining how to opt-out of having my information released to my health care providers' "partners" who may have services of interest to me. Of course, since I didn't start out in an opted-out state, my information was already released into the wild. Now, I'm starting to get all of this medical junk mail aimed at senior citizens! Thank god they only got my address. If the marketing industry ever finds out I'm a hypochodriac, they'll bombard me!
Seriously, if they allow for any relaxation of privacy regarding personal medical information, you can bet your bottom dollar that anyone who could possibly make a buck off of that information will find a way to obtain it.