***News Release***
22 HIPAA Harms
Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom Shares 22 HIPAA Harms on 22nd Anniversary of Patient ‘Privacy’ Act with Series of Social Media Posts
PAUL, Minn.—Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) is planning a social media event today—the 22nd anniversary of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)—and alerting Americans how HIPAA, in fact, doesn’t protect patient privacy at all.
HIPAA was signed into law 22 years ago on Aug. 21, 1996, and CCHF will educate the public about “22 HIPAA Harms” throughout the day on Facebook and Twitter.
Tweets at @CCHFreedom will begin at 7 a.m. CDT and continue every 40 minutes through 10:20 p.m. CDT. At CCHF’s Facebook page, informative posts are planned for 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m. CDT.
“HIPAA is considered a ‘permissive’ rule—and one of the largest deceptions ever foisted on the American people,” says author Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF. “There is no reason to celebrate this anniversary. Despite the flurry of privacy notices and the irksome obstacles to normal patient-doctor interactions, private medical records have not been protected from peering eyes. Instead, the federal government has authorized more than 700,000 clinics, hospitals, insurers and data processing companies to dig deep into the private lives of more than 320 million individuals. And for the most part, patients won’t even be allowed to know who’s doing the digging. Federal law allows stricter, more privacy-protecting state laws to take precedence over the Rule. State lawmakers should take advantage of this power to truly protect patient privacy.”
The 22 “HIPAA Harms” including the following, among many others:
- HIPAA HARM # 1: HIPAA permits your health records, tests, diagnoses, and doctor’s notes to be shared between physicians and hospitals without your knowledge, making it nearly impossible to get a truly unbiased second opinion.
- HIPAA HARM # 2: HIPAA permits scientists, researchers, and Big Data to use your medical and genetic information for research without your knowledge or consent.
- HIPAA HARM # 3: HIPAA permits health plans and the government to access private health information without patient consent for many different purposes.
- HIPAA HARM # 4: HIPAA permits 2.2 million entities (including 1.5 million business associates) to access your medical record information if the entity holding your information decides to share it.
- View all 22 ‘HIPAA Harms’ here.
CCHF is also asking Americans concerned about their privacy to ask their state legislators to pass a real medical privacy law as permitted by HIPAA, as well as ask their members of Congress and the Trump administration to restore patient consent rights eliminated by the federal HIPAA no-privacy rule. Those who refuse to sign the HIPAA form in doctor’s offices and clinic can report their experience to CCHF at www.HIPAAhurtme.com.
Brase discusses HIPAA in detail in her new book, “Big Brother in the Exam Room,” published last month by Beaver’s Pond Press. The book exposes how and why Congress forced doctors and hospitals to install a data-collecting, command-and-control surveillance system in the exam room. “Big Brother in the Exam Room” also includes the negative impact of EHRs on privacy, personalized care, costs, patient safety and more, according to doctors and data from more than 125 studies. Learn more at Amazon.com and www.BigBrotherInTheExamRoom.com.
For more information about CCHF, visit www.cchfreedom.org, its Facebook page or its Twitter feed @CCHFreedom. Read more about “Big Brother in the Exam Room” here, and view the media page for CCHF here. For more about CCHF’s free-market, cash-based care initiative, The Wedge of Health Freedom, visit www.JointheWedge.com, The Wedge Facebook page or follow The Wedge on Twitter @wedgeoffreedom.
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