In
order to get care at an after hours "Urgent Care" unit today, I had
to sign that I had received a copy of the "Privacy Practices." I
could not have asked for a nicer place to go to, but this "Privacy
Practice" paper is another story.
In the past, I have known
these types of papers to simply state that they can share my
medical information with my primary physician, my
insurance company, and other places that have to do with my
medical care. This time it was much different.
Though
it did have the usual. It had far more. Check out some of the
sections.
Disaster Relief: We may disclose
your Protected Health Information for public health activities
including the reporting of disease, injury, vital events, and the
conduct of public health surveillance, investigation and/or
intervention. We may also disclose your information to notify a
person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may
otherwise be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or
condition if a law permits us to do so.
Law
Enforcement: We may disclose your Protected Health
information for certain law enforcement purposes or other purposes
or other specialized governmental functions.
Judicial
and Administrative Proceedings: We may disclose your
Protected Health Information in the course of a certain judicial or
administrative proceedings.
There's more, but here is the
biggie, should you ever have someone in Congress or the President
upset with you and desire to get into your medical records to try to
find dirt on you, like if you have ever seen a shrink or taken
antidepressants, etc., it very well could happen, as per the next
statement.
National Security and
Intelligence Activities; Protective Services: We may
disclose health information to authorized federal officials who are
conducting national security and intelligence activities or as
needed to provide protection to the President of the United States,
or other important officials.
There
is a section that sounds like I can block this with a letter
written in, which I will be doing first thing tomorrow. I will also
be on the phone with my regular medical office and making
sure it has nothing of this sort. And I will always be
very careful in any type of urgent care facility or emergency room.
Bottom line, folks; it is time we all be very careful of
that which we disclose to our medical caregivers. We need to be very
wise. There is a reason that our government is sneaking all of this
stuff in on us. And we need to be prepared for the worst. No matter
what, READ READ READ, everything that you are putting your name
to!
Update
11/10/09:
I
have learned that this is definitely a federal form and that
this is nationwide. I also learned that my primary care giver's
office also has to have it. And thanks to Bill (a
local friend of mine who I met at my summer health care meeting), I
now have a link to the actual form that is online: http://www.lakesidehealth.com/documents/hippaprivacy.pdf
If you don't think this is nation-wide, check
this out: Click Here --check your local medical places
too.
The form
for the place here, has a 2003 date on it. We have also
learned, thanks to Bill, of a site online that shows that some
things changed with the 2009 Stimulus. We are still searching to
find out the details. But, no matter who is at blame for this
atrocity, we need to do something about it. And in the mean time, we
need to all be ware of what we have in our doctors'
files.
You will notice on the form, an option to revoke your
authorization, with the medical place where you have had care. This
would work well after an urgent care or hospital situation, as long
as you know they have been paid by your insurance agency and that
they have conveyed information back to your primary doctor's office.
But
what about your on going care in your primary office? Well, there is
a section that speaks of being able to "request" restrictions. I am
going to work something out with my primary doctor's office that has
restrictions on how much of this form can be used for my family’s
records and mine. If something cannot be worked out, a person would
have to revoke the authorization after each visit, in the same
manner as with an urgent care unit or hospital.
This is
wrong. It is seriously wrong that we should have to go through this,
just to keep that which we are medically owed, as a right, "Doctor /
Patient Confidentiality."
We
all will need to be extremely careful of information
given to doctors, personal info, etc. And think twice before seeking
any type of counseling or depression medicine. This shows us that
the federal government can profile us, with our own medical
records.
Please note that even though the date is 2003, I
have never seen a form like this before. Have you? We are trying to
get to the bottom of when this actually began being handed out,
along with who in the federal government is behind
this.
