U.S. stimulus bill pushes e-health records for all
February 10, 2009 (Cnet)
On Tuesday (10 February 2009), the U.S. Senate approved an $838 billion "stimulus" bill, of which one section of the legislation is intended to radically reshape the nation's medical system by having the government establish computerized medical records that would follow each American from birth to death.
Billions of dollars will be provided to companies creating these databases as well as to universities to incorporate patient databases "into the initial and ongoing training of health professionals." There is also mention of a future "smart card functionality."
Yet nowhere in this 140-page portion of the legislation does the government anticipate that some Americans may not want their medical histories electronically stored, shared, and searchable. Although a single paragraph promises that data-sharing will "be voluntary," there's no obvious way to opt out.
"Without those protections, Americans' electronic health records could be shared -- without their consent -- with over 600,000 covered entities through the forthcoming nationally linked electronic health records network," said Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom, a nonprofit group that advocates health care privacy.
The databases will, "at a minimum," include information on every American's race and ethnicity. They will be used for "biosurveillance and public health" and "medical and clinical research," both of which raise privacy questions. They will become part of a "nationwide system for the electronic use and exchange of health information."
Plus, the federal government will use its vast purchasing power -- think Medicare and Medicaid -- to compel adoption of e-records that meet government "standards and implementation specifications."
"Congress must close a number of the unnecessary and damaging loopholes designed by industry that have been added to the economic recovery package," said Ashley Katz, director of Patient Privacy Rights. PPR is especially concerned with a section of the Senate bill, which did not exist in the House of Representatives version, that may permit marketing literature and direct mail to be sent based on the contents of a patient's e-records.
YOUnite's patented technology offers a unique solution to the issues that are being raised by the forthcoming electronic health records initiative through the notion of "distributed sharing of personal identity attributes". By applying YOUnite's patented technology to this particular case, the individual would have the ability to selectively share any pieces of their health record with any specific entity or data storage destination on an individual and granular basis. Moreover, the individual could allow access of sensitive data to a third party without having to actually transfer that sensitive data to the third party’s network.
YOUnite’s patented technology increases the security and accuracy in an efficient and cost effective manner, thereby directly addressing the potential serious issues of data security that are being discussed regarding the electronic health record initiatives.
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