We keep hearing about how the War on Drugs has failed. But the truth is, the War on Drugs has been tremendously successful, that is if you wanted your country to be a police state, your Congress completely unresponsive to the needs of the people, and your doctors letting you and your loved ones live and die in unnecessary pain.

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Washington, DC (March 26, 2009)—While it is touted as a major tool for lowering health care costs, the Electronic Health Record (EHR) has serious implications for Americans' health privacy. The Institute for Health Freedom (IHF) warns that the economic stimulus law (H.R. 1, Public Law No. 111-5) weakens individuals' control over the flow of their personal health information. "The economic stimulus law plans for every American to use an electronic health record (EHR) and allows those records to be sold for research and public-health purposes—without patients' consent," said Sue Blevins, IHF president.

"According to some health IT experts, we're entering a 'gold rush' era for health data," Blevins noted. "Sophisticated data-management techniques make it increasingly easy to share individuals' most sensitive health data—including genetic information—without their knowing it. The EHR further enables this sharing. That is why addressing patient ownership and consent rights are essential. Such rights will determine whether Americans will either 'own or be owned, control or be controlled' when it comes to their genetic and other personal health data."

"Unfortunately, the economic stimulus law does not guarantee that individuals own and control their genetic and other personal health data. Thus, Congress should act soon to make sure Americans have individual ownership rights and full control over their personal health data as we move toward adopting EHR systems," she said.

IHF released a side-by-side comparison of key aspects of the federal HIPAA privacy rule and the privacy provisions in the economic stimulus law (see: http://www.forhealthfreedom.org/Newsletter/March2009.html).

The comparison shows clearly that the new law does not give citizens final say in who can access their personal health information. "As it stands, the HIPAA law allows individuals' data to be disclosed to more than 600,000 health-related organizations—without patients' consent. And the economic stimulus law did not close this huge gap," noted Blevins. "Let's hope Congress fixes this soon by ensuring ownership rights and patient-consent rights regarding the disclosure of Americans' personal health information—including genetic information."

Moreover, IHF points out that most members of Congress didn't have time to read the economic stimulus bill before voting on it. And President Obama didn't read the bill in its entirety before signing it into law, according to a CBS News report. "IHF urges Congress and President Obama to read thoroughly future bills before voting and signing them into law. Also, the American public should receive at least one week to study proposed laws so they can share their informed views with their elected officials. Our health privacy rights are vital and deserve thoughtful and well-informed policymaking," Blevins said.

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The Institute for Health Freedom (IHF) (www.ForHealthFreedom.org) is national nonprofit, educational organization whose mission is to bring the issues of personal health freedom to the forefront of the American health-policy debate. IHF monitors and reports on national policies that affect citizens' freedom to choose their health-care treatments and providers, and to maintain their health privacy—including genetic privacy.

The computerization of personal healthcare records is one of the showpieces of the new stimulus bill. President Obama promised, “We will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years all of America’s medical records are computerized.” Congress ponied up $19 billion to subsidize the digitization of patient files and creation of electronic healthcare tracking systems.

STEALTH RATIONING OF MEDICAL CARE SNEAKS INTO THE "STIMULUS" BILL, SAYS THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS (AAPS)

Unwanted "change" is coming to senior citizens and all those needing medical care if the stealth rationing in the "stimulus" bill becomes law. Rationing of medical care has nothing to do with stimulating the economy, but it was inserted into the bill before the public realized it.

(Washington, DC)—The Institute for Health Freedom (IHF) warns that the economic stimulus bill mandates the federal government to plan for electronic health records for every citizen without providing for opt-out or patient consent provisions.  "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," says Sue A.

WASHINGTON – The Coalition for Patient Privacy urged Congress Wednesday to include privacy safeguards with any funding earmarked for healthcare IT in an economic stimulus package expected to hit President-elect Barack Obama's desk shortly after inauguration.

The bipartisan coalition, representing more than 30 organizations, individual experts and the Microsoft Corporation, said trust is essential to public adoption of healthcare IT.

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

Patient Advocates to Hold News Conference Calling on Congress to Ensure Medical Privacy Protections

Safeguards Need to Be Part of Funding for Implementation of Health IT Systems in Economic Stimulus Package

FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
January 13, 2009

Contact: Ashley Katz, Patient Privacy Rights, (512) 732-0033, akatz@patientprivacyrights.org; or
Matthew Allee, American Civil Liberties Union, (202) 675-2336, mallee@dcaclu.org

and

It has been widely asserted, and most people believe, that the Privacy Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of health information. Unfortunately, this is a myth. Just as the “P” in HIPAA does not stand for “privacy,” it turns out that the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which went into effect in 2002, actually eliminates privacy protection, and does so in a way that prevents privacy violations from being detected, monitored, or audited.

By  Diana Manos, Senior Editor

09/19/08