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Facebook Ready To Get Into Healthcare
New submitter Ted_Margaris_Chicago sends a report from Reuters indicating Facebook will be adding healthcare features to their social network.
The company is exploring creating online "support communities" that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments. A small team is also considering new "preventative care" applications that would help people improve their lifestyles. In recent months, the sources said, the social networking giant has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps. Facebook is still in the idea-gathering stage, the people said.
The article notes two reasons in particular that spurred Facebook to this course of action. First, the day that Facebook let people share their organ donor status, the U.S. saw a 21-fold increase in people registering to be organ donors. Second, they noticed users with chronic conditions had a tendency to search Facebook for advice.
In other countries, that is one thing. In the US, any info can be used to cancel your policy, jack your rates, deny claims (good luck going anywhere against their billion dollar lawyer teams), or perhaps be used for a criminal investigation.
HIPAA is a toothless law, and has never has been enforced, even once. At best, there was a -threat- made to enforce it so that a medical place would at least think about security, but it has yet to be actually used by a prosecutor in a court of law.