Electronic Medical Records and Privacy, what privacy?

Fear mongering: selling insurance through the what would you do if? Selling "wellness" through what if you skip your exam? Selling HIPPA through threats that your health secrets will be revealed...It's all meaningful ONLY if it is applicable to the churning fraud opportunities within the health services industry, from providers to their assistants to their staff to their administrators to the staff of the administrators to their subcontractors....meaning that not only confidentiality but breaches of those confidentiality apply to all and are enforced and provide for stiff penalties...penalties bigger than the cost of taking a chance that privacy breaches will be successfully prosecuted by a consumer which is not likely.

I have not yet seen a case where HIPPA protects anyone's privacy from the real risks to breaches of that privacy though it's been fun for health services providers and health insurers to refuse to give parents information about their eighteen year old children and to refuse to let people find out about their parents suddenly stricken by stroke or illness. HIPPA is a flop because real privacy concerns are not addressed so let's go public with everything, who cares? Consider...

Drug data mining: sales by physicians of lists describing their prescribing habits--defended as anonymous so why not make the buck off the lists, no privacy protection there.

Personal health records: Already being pushed by insurance companies with the proviso that self-reporting by insured won't necessarily be relied upon...data gathering and self-reporting by consumers for no purpose that benefits consumer (such as reducing redundant or unnecessary testing).

Electronic Medical Records: Most physicians are against this because THEY don't want the charts in some non-modifiable format...think malpractice. If EMRs don't include physicians putting their money where their mouths are: test results AND charts electronic, this is useless for consumers.

Third party "wellness" calls: Companies that are paid by insurance companies to call you and encourage you to manage your illness that they know all about because the insurance company has provided the information...privacy? No, these call companies even identify themselves as the insurer when they call rather than as separate entities.

Credit-worthiness assessments through credit score checks of potential patients by health services providers...better make sure you pay those bills if you want medical services.

Privacy will depend on publication...ironic isn't it. Publication of the breaches and prosecution of the same in addition to fines, damages and actions regarding the licenses of physicians who breach such privacy (you know, that out of date confidentiality thing). But what about the insurers, the nurses, the physician assistants, the computer hackers, the IT guys....not much protection there so give up the privacy and push for accountability!