HIPAA Basics: Medical Privacy in the Electronic Age

Fact Sheet 8aHIPAA Basics:
Medical Privacy in the Electronic Age

Today you have more reason than ever to care about the privacy of your medical information. Intimate details you revealed in confidence to your doctor were once stored in locked file cabinets and on dusty shelves in the medical records department.

Now, sensitive information about your physical and mental health will almost certainly end up in data files. Your records may be seen by hundreds of strangers who work in health care, the insurance industry, and a host of businesses associated with medical organizations. What's worse, your private medical information is now a valuable commodity for marketers who want to sell you something.

Medical Privacy FAQ

Fact Sheet 8bMedical Privacy FAQ

Sample Letter to Request Medical Records

Sample letter: request medical records as allowed by HIPAA.

 

 

 

 

[Your name]
[Your address]
[Date]

Comments to Department of Health and Human Services re Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) appreciates this opportunity to comment on the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS or Department) interim final rules regarding breach notification to individuals in the event of unauthorized use and access of protected health information. The rules, issued in coordination with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), are mandated by Section 13402 of the Health Information Technology for Clinical Health (HITECH) A

Online Personal Health Records: Are They Healthy for Your Privacy?

A personal health record (PHR) is a tool for collecting, tracking, and sharing information about your health.  Because medical records are among the most sensitive type of personal information, we at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse have some concerns about PHRs. PHRs may not necessarily be private and may not be secure, despite what the hosting site tells you.

What Is HealthVault? Things to Think About Before You Participate

HealthVault is Microsoft's new service for storing, managing, and accessing a patient's medical information. www.healthvault.com  It operates as an online encrypted service.  The service offers a voluntary opportunity for medical records to be collected by aggregating information from various sources including health-care providers, insurance companies, and compatible medical devices (such as blood pressure monitoring devices).

Pharmacies Profiting At Your Expense: Your Help Is Requested

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) has been in the forefront in asserting that pharmacies -- and their marketing partners, the big pharmaceutical companies -- act improperly when using the medical information in customer prescriptions to mail letters or call customers in order to sell more drugs.

If this happened to you or someone in your family, please let us know.  It could be very helpful to the outcome of the lawsuit.

For a Complete Medical History, Compile Your Own Health Records but be Cautious about Storing Them Online

If you don't already keep a personal health record, now is the best time to start. Do not rely on your ability to go back in time to collate a complete medical file. The longer you wait, the more difficulty you may have in obtaining older health records.

Regarding the Privacy Implications of the Proposed National Health Information Network (NHIN)

The proposed National Health Information Network embodies a presidential mandate to bring information technology to healthcare by making complete patient records available to providers, regardless of location.

In responding to the questions asked in the RFI, we will discuss matters of privacy and security, and also whether standardization of healthcare information may ultimately be detrimental to patient treatment.

Privacy Rights and the Marketing of Confidential Medical Information: Questions and Answers on the Case of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) v. Albertsons

Albertsons collects its customers’ confidential medical information by surreptitiously reviewing customer prescriptions - required to be kept confidential and used only as authorized by the patient - and creates a retrievable database including customer addresses, phone numbers and drug regimen. The information is made available for use to satisfy pharmaceutical companies willing to pay Albertsons to fulfill drug marketing objectives. The result is unsolicited mailings and/or phone calls directed at consumers attempting to convince them to buy more or different medications.

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