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The general topic of this message is Civil Rights:
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Subject:
I don't know about the rest of my fellow American, but I have already told my Healthcare providers that if they do this I will sue them for violation of my forth Amendment Rights and also the Congress and Government.
To:
President Barack Obama
Vice President Joseph Biden
September 28, 2009
I don't know about the rest of my fellow American, but I have already told my Healthcare providers that if they do this I will sue them for violation of my forth Amendment Rights and also the Congress and Government. They have no need to know about my medical conditions and I will tell that to any member of Congress or the Illegal Alien in the White House. I don't give up my Right to a bunch of never earn the right to even speak to me Progressive Socialist Pig Democrats, like Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Kerry,.and their peers.
"Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D.-R.I.) says people will be able to stop doctors from including records of sexually transmitted diseases and abortions in the new national system of Electronic Health Records that was mandated by the stimulus law enacted in February.
The law says that doctors, hospitals and other health care providers must create an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for every American by 2014 or else face deductions in their Medicare payments. The EHRs are supposed to be integrated into a national health care IT system where health-care providers nationwide as well as the government would have the ability to access them when authorized.
"This is totally going to be up to the individual," Kennedy told CNSNews.com when specifically asked if these EHRs would include any STDs or abortions in a person's medical history.
Title XIII of the stimulus law provided for "the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure" that would include "the qualified electronic health record" of "each person in the United States by 2014."
The law specifically says that this "means an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that -- (A) includes patient demographic and clinical health information, such as medical history and problems lists; and (B) has the capacity -- (i) to provide clinical decision support; (ii) to support physician order entry; (iii) to capture and query information relevant to health care quality; and (iv) to exchange electronic health information with, and integrate such information from other sources."
These records--including a person's "medical history and problems list"--must be put into a national system that allows for "the electronic linkage of health care providers, health plans, the government and other interested parties to enable electronic exchange and use of health information among all the components in the health care infrastructure in accordance with applicable law," says the law.
The law further requires the secretary of health and human services "to improve the use of electronic health records and health care quality by requiring more stringent measures of meaningful use over time," according to an explanation of the law published by the House Appropriations Committee in February.
Nonetheless, Rep. Kennedy says individuals will be able to opt out of having doctors and health care providers list any STDs or abortions they have had.
By contrast, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Tex.), who is a doctor, said completeness may be required in the electronic health records for both clinical and liability reasons.
"This is totally going to be up to the individual," Kennedy told CNSNews.com last when asked whether the records would have to include any STD or abortion a person might have had.
"So, obviously, for the full effectiveness of the person, it's to their benefit to have everything on a record, but it's going to be totally up to the individual," said Kennedy. "We're not going to get people to fully buy into this if they don't feel comfortable with the record--and the one way to not make them feel comfortable with the record is to force everything on them and say, 'This is a mandate, you're going to have to do this or that.' Because if that happens, then people aren't going to want to buy in and the system's not going to work.
"So what's going to happen is this is going to be someone's--people's opportunity to choose, because they are going to know there are safeguards, and I think over time they are going to get more and more comfortable that this is in the best interest of them and their personal health," said Rep. Kennedy. "But absolutely, we are going to make sure that's it's all up to the individual, because we are not going to get widespread adoption if people don't feel that their privacy is protected. Privacy is the cornerstone of making sure this thing works."
Ashley Katz, executive director of Patient Privacy Rights, a non-profit health policy watchdog group, agreed with Kennedy about the importance of protecting the privacy of electronic health records but said that electronic health records as currently used are not generally designed to allow people to exempt parts of their medical history.
"I agree that privacy is the cornerstone of health care and ultimate adoption of electronic health records," said Katz. "It is assuring to hear that the congressman's intent is to ensure people can choose what information would go into an EHR versus mandating all data be dumped in without a patient's consent."
"However, most electronic health records today are not designed or used to allow people to make informed choices," said Katz. "There is tremendous opposition by industry to allowing this kind of patient choice, and industry has a powerful influence on policy. We continue to hear that letting a patient segment or block sensitive information from going in to an EHR and allowing a patient to have control over who can see and use their information is too complicated and not worth doing. We wholly disagree. Patient control is essential with EHRs."
Katz also said there is no language in the stimulus bill that says a patient can prevent something like an STD from appearing on their electronic health record.
"The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) allows a doctor to use/share the information for any purposes that fall under 'treatment, payment, and health care operations' without the patients request," she told CNSNews.com.
"It actually says that the patient may request a restriction, but the provider does not have to comply with that restriction. It's a toothless 'right,'" said Katz.
"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [ARRA, the economic stimulus law] included a provision that would require a provider to not share information with a health plan, if the patient
Clifton , VA
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