# What's the story on a national medical records database?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-a-national-medical-records-database/31937>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-a-national-medical-records-database/31937 "2000-09-04T03:15:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mu\_Mu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Mu\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mu_Mu)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-a-national-medical-records-database/31937/1 "2000-09-04T03:15:57Z")

</div>

I read in a book on privacy that anyone who ever used their social security number when visiting the doctor has a permanent record in some Medical Records Database.

- Does it exist? What’s the name of it?
- Do you have rights to contest the information supplied?

I was recently checked for company health/life insurance, along with all the other company officers.

I was the only one not approved right away, although I had no diseases ever on the check list they gave me, and I’m exactly in the middle of their own height-weight chart, tested clean on the blood test and blood pressure test, and am not the oldest or youngest of the group.

They made me get a special doctor’s exam and delayed me for two months.

I assume, since it wasn’t any info I gave them, that they were worried about something in my “permanent record”. If such a thing exists, it must be wrong, because I’ve never had anything but the flu.

So obviously I need to correct it, if such a record exists.

Or has the book on privacy overstated things and there is no such database?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![That\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@That\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Girl)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-a-national-medical-records-database/31937/2 "2000-09-08T04:03:13Z")

</div>

It’s the University of California synopsis for highschool teachers. I guess in Civics or Health classes.

\*\* [http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/privacy-main.html](http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/privacy-main.html) \*\*

Excerpt:

How is this Information Being Used?  
In a recent 1993 Harris Poll, more than a quarter of the people who responded said that information about them had been improperly disclosed. Below is a list of some agencies who already have access to your medical information:

Health and Life Insurance companies require you to release your records before they will issue a policy to you.

Government agencies such as Medicare or Social Security Administration

The Medical Information Bureau has approximately 15 million files in a central database. Every time you file an insurance claim, a copy of this information goes to MIB.

Some institutions gather medical information on individuals and sell this information to drug companies.