Klarinet Archive - Posting 000555.txt from 2004/08

From: donna@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] Costco caskets
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:15:16 -0400

Quoting Christy Erickson <perickso@-----.net>:

> Bill, I also do not think there is any sort of national database and there
> better not be. This would fly in the face of every confidentiality and
> right to privacy law that currently exists. The confidentiality laws were
> recently tightened up (at least in Wisconsin they were) and now my
> physician does not even leave a message on my phone stating who they are

This is most likely due to the federal Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act, which was passed several years ago mainly to make it easier
for people to keep their health insurance if they lose or change their jobs.
HIPAA included some medical privacy provisions that were originally considered a
minor part of the statute, but have since turned into the monster that ate
Manhattan.

The HIPAA privacy rules have instilled a lot of paranoia in the health care
industry and led to some real problems (for example, in some cases police have
not been able to interview crime victims because the hospital won't tell the
police that the victim is there).

But honestly, I'm glad that doctor's offices and other health providers are
taking privacy more seriously. I live alone, but if I were married I can
imagine plenty of circumstances in which I wouldn't want my spouse to find out
from a phone message that I'd been to the doctor. Plus, you never know who
might hear that message.

I lived at home for a few years after finishing college, and one day when my
mother came home from a trip to the local pharmacy to pick up a prescription for
herself, she had one for me, too. The pharmacist thought she was doing me a
favor by saving me a trip, but I was furious. At the time I was 23 years old,
and since I was legally an adult my mother had no right to know anything about
my medical care that I did not choose to share with her. It was only a
prescription for an ear infection, but what if it had been for something like
birth control pills?

The privacy of genetic information is protected as "personal health information"
under HIPAA. The problem is that HIPAA contains loopholes big enough to fly a
747 through, and there is NO federal law that prevents your employer or insurer
from discriminating against you based on your genetic profile (I don't know if
any states do). Congress has tried to pass a genetic anti-discrimination law
every year since 1995, and last year for the first time a bill made it out of
the Senate (S. 1053, passed Oct. 14, 2003). But it went nowhere in the House.

So, that's probably more than you ever wanted to know....

- Donna
who knows all this stuff because she's the editor of a publication on privacy
law

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