Neil Versel of BNET reports: Although Google and Microsoft have gotten plenty of attention for their Web-based personal health records, both companies have long maintained that they’re not bound by the privacy protections of a 1996 federal law known as HIPAA. And despite a recent HIPAA change — one intended to extend its privacy…
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HITECH: Be afraid, be very afraid
Opinion piece by Maureen Martin, senior fellow for legal affairs at The Heartland Institute: Maureen Martin of The Heartland Institute, a think tank promoting public policy based on individual liberty, limited government and free markets, argues that the new Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act  exposes too much personal information. When President…
HHS Secretary nominee pushes HIT’s role in data mining even as new report of stolen electronic medical records surfaces
On Tuesday, HHS Secretary nominee, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, confirmed her support for the use of electronic medical records as a way of data mining patient information. During the Senate hearings on her confirmation, Gov. Sebelius said that electronic health records (EHR) data was crucial to conduct “comparative effectiveness research [CER] to provide information on…
NEW: Patient's Guide to HIPAA
From the good folks over at World Privacy Forum: The Patient’s Guide to HIPAA is the first comprehensive guide to medical privacy written expressly for patients with a practical eye as to how to use the law to protect privacy. It is a major privacy resource for patients, written directly and without legalese. The Patient’s…
Georgia Legislature goes after your right to privacy
Jason Pye writes: At some point today, the Georgia Senate will consider HB 614, the “Georgia Prescription Monitoring Program Act,” which would establish a state surveillance system for the monitoring of prescribing and dispensing of certain medications (Schedules II, III, IV, or V). Included in the database would be most pain relievers, anxiety medications, sleep…
AU: Outlaw genetic snoops (commentary)
Robyn Riley writes: I can understand the companies want a detailed health history before agreeing to issue cover. That’s business. But delving into a person’s genetic make-up is an abuse of technology and, worse, a Big Brother-type invasion of privacy. And yet it is already happening. According to a study published in Genetics in Medicine,…