Every time I go to the doctor recently (been to two different doctors in the last month now) as well as the pharmacy I have to sign some sort of Privacy thing which basically states what information the dr, hospital, lab or pharmacy can disclose and to whom. I’ve also gotten such forms from my HMO.
I thought that all your medical info was private, but always privy to HMO’s and people like the coroner and CDC. This is pretty much what the form says - they can give this information to those folks.
What happened in the last month in Ohio or nationally that everyone’s all worried about my medical information being kept a secret?
Nationally, federal HIPAA was enacted. This legislation requires some new safeguards on your health information that’s stored and transmitted electronically, and requires disclosure of your privacy and access rights in relation to your health information. As enacted, it does not make huge changes. It was much more comprehensive and useful to the health care consumer before Bush castrated it.
To be more precise, the law was enacted in 1996. However, the law as passed by Congress requires certain government agencies (in this case, The Department of Health and Human Services) to write regulations implementing the legislation and providing specific rules to accomplish the tasks set out in the legislation. Those rules were finally promulgated recently, with an effective date of (IIRC) April 14th. While only Congress can modify the law, HHS can revise these rules at any time.
Without getting into the merits of the rules as promulgated (since I know almost nothing about them), they are considered to enact quite a change in the way medical information is protected. Doctor’s offices in particular, I’ve been told, have been incredibly sloppy with medical information in the past. (Things like “Dr. Smith, Mrs. Williams is here for her pap smear!” get yelled out in the back rooms all the time, and test results are sometimes left on answering machines). The rules have made serious crackdowns on that type of casual communication.
My last OB appointment, I had to sign one of these too. It also included a spot for me to supply the name of anyone who I’d be willing to let the office inform of my very basic info. Nothing more in depth than yes, she does have an appointment today or, no–the test won’t be scheduled until next month. Even with the name provided by me, the person (I put my mother) still needs to know the password I provided before they’ll even give out that minimum of info.
Also, no more last names are to be used in the waiting room area. They call you for your turn by first name only. I never had a problem with privacy in the past, but I can certainly see how it could be potentially embarassing for your full name to be announced to the room at large if you’re at a certain kind of doc or clinic and wish to keep your presence there low key.