Privacy advocates tend to know the following, but I suspect the general public doesn’t and would be a bit shocked. Laura Hutchinson of WWLP in Massachusetts, reported in a piece on medical identity theft:
The 22News I-Team did an experiment and found we didn’t have to pay any money at all to find out names of people in Massachusetts who are diabetics, the number of times a day they need medication, who their doctor is and where they live.
You’d like to think that those closed-door meetings with your doctor stay between you two, but as more hospitals and doctors’ offices put their records online, it’s becoming easier for people to access them.
Springfield consumer advocate Milagros Johnson says medical identity theft is getting worse and a 22News I-Team investigation reveals just how easy it is to get information.
We discovered websites that sell patient information. They appear to target medical supply companies, but there’s nothing stopping the general public from accessing the information as well.
The 22News I-Team e-mailed the company to ask what they could offer and for how much. They gave a list of prices but also supplied us with free samples: samples of names and personal information.
For no money at all, we were able to get the names of hundreds of patients, their home address and number, names of their doctors, how often they take medication, etc. Some of these people are right here in Western Mass.
If you don’t want such information being freely acquired and re-sold, then stop calling us some of “privacy wingnuts,” and join us in trying to protect patient privacy.