Bulletproof your privacy

A company called MediCARD1 provides a personal health records, (PHR) account in which you have absolute control over whom, what and when your personal health information is accessed. No one can access your private PHR account unless you have given them authorization to access it. Once permission has been authorized to an individual or organization you will receive an email immediately after any authorized person logs off from accessing your account. The email will inform you of the date and time of access and who accessed your information and what they looked at while they accessed your information. There are many privacy and control innovations within the MediCARD1 system for your personal privacy. In fact there is so many that to include every innovation for the service that there is not nearly enough room or time for me to include everything in this one article. However if you will follow my blogs you will be able to read the articles that I publish weekly about such issues. For example HIPPA 5010 and what it really means and has it defeated the original intent and purpose of HIPPA. How MediCARD1 has automated ICD-10 and NDS Rx codes for point of contact payment. I will show health care providers not only how they can get their electronic medical record, (EMR) services for free but how to make money with them. These are just a few of the topics I address with my weekly blog series. Follow me on http://www.blogbur.blogspot.com/ to get the latest out of the box thinking. The articles I published may shock you. I will show you what big business and the government are doing to make money from yours and your families’ personal health care records. Search Google for the Godulaztion of de-identification for a revealing look at how bad this process really is. There is huge cover up taking place and it is being very effectively managed. You can follow me here on http://www.blogbur.blogspot.com/ or twitter me at  http://twitter.com/#!/ or find me at http://about.me/Blackhorse . Thanks everyone I love the discussion I always try to cram one article a week into my busy schedule. At MediCARD1 securing your personal privacy is of paramount concern. With a MediCARD1 personal account your privacy is bulletproofed. Till then be cool Bob RN, President and CEO of MediCARD1, Inc. MediCARD1 the private answer to the public option. To automatically be notified of my new articles as I post them enter your email in the FOLLOW BY EMAIL box and click submit.

Privacy and Security: Is it achieved under HIPAA 5010?

Veiling my phytogenetics I hope it works!

It is the responsibility of health care providers to keep patients' personal health records confidential and private. If a patients confidential health information is breached it can mean big trouble lawsuits, fines, degradation of trust and etc. for health care providers. Under HIPAA 5010, a covered entity can in fact disclose a patient’s entire medical record. There are all kinds of exceptions and broad definitions under the disclosure rules. When patients discover who has been given their private information they are going to be horrified about who has seen it and who is requesting it. This is going to be all the more startling when genomic data becomes incorporated into therapies and is available via the patient record. It is vitally important that people understand that the privacy rule requirements do not apply to information that has been de-identified. The ramifications of this are of momentous significance now and into the future. Do you really want strangers to get their hands on your personal data and be rooting around in in your most personal health information? Is there anything that can be done to protect your privacy? I want to know what you think. So be sure to leave a comment in the comment section of my blog. 

Secure Your Privacy Now!

Don't let your privacy be terminated!

Control your personal health care privacy. Health care providers are being forced into the world of electronic medical record (EMR) keeping while patients are being left behind in the dust of this rush to the electronic revolution. There is no public or government outcry for the privacy rights of the patient with this move into the world of electronic health information technologies, (HIT). The fact of the matter is that there is no public discourse on how the clients of health the care system are being treated in this rush to HIT. The government has discounted the public while forcing an adherence to electronic media on health care providers without a thought as to how this will affect the most important person in this shift to electronics and that is the patient. Patients have no idea what is being done with their most private personal healthcare records PHR.  Physicians give little thought or concern to patient privacy as the government is the author of the new HIPPA 5010 policies. There is little to no consideration given by anyone to the choice of the individual patient as to how or where their records are stored or used.

What most people don’t know is that their most personal health information is being bartered and sold in public domain to the highest bidder without their knowledge or consent. The federal government has passed new regulations for HIPPA that declare your personal health care records can be compiled in lists and sold in clearing houses to the highest bidder for purposes of research. Are you getting that warm fuzzy feeling yet? This is being done in order to control the costs of pushing the health care providers into electronic media. How you may ask?  Well let me enlighten you. I will paint this in broad strokes but the threat to your privacy is by no means to be diminished. It is your privacy that is at stake. I don’t know how you feel about your personal health care records but mine are extensive I can see the pitchmen drooling over them right now.   

The government in order to break the iron clad federal HIPPA laws have made changes to the HIPPA regulations in order to make a loophole in your right to control your personal health care records. In the first attempt by the government to control dissemination of your personal health care records there was an outcry among federal employees about privacy concerns as the government wanted to de-identify all federally insured workers medical records with the 4010A1 HIPPA law. This law meant that their medical records could be exported to clearing houses for research. The Fed’s halted implementation of 4010A1 which outlined eight steps required for de-indentifying personal health care records. They went back and reassessed the concerns of the employees and came up with new de-identification guidelines with HIPPA 5010 which outlined eighteen guidelines for de-identification of your personal health care records. However, the new guidelines do not guarantee that your personal health care records will remain 100% private.

The conclusion of a study done by John Hopkins Medical Institution was that “a major flaw in the current de-identification models is their failure to prevent re-identification by inference.”  The “Godelization of pathology database: re-identification by inference” is a mathematical equation that calculates the probability of your personal health care records being re-identified. This study demonstrated that a patient’s medical records are not 100% secure under the HIPPA 5010 guidelines.

The problem for both patients and health care providers in today’s world of electronic information are costs, privacy, transparency and control. The reality is that not only do health care providers have to come to terms with the new reality of electronic charting and record keeping but the patients as well need to evolve into using this new media. Patients should not be surprised to learn what happens to their health information. If patients would be surprised doctors better get their consent. Transparency by providers goes a long way to enable consent. There are also trigger events that would indicate the need for “meaningful” consent from a consumer, such as a third party or some exchanges that collect and combine information in a database for use by others. Consumers should be able to understand how their information is used. While on the health care provider side of this equation the costs have diminished there is no process in place for the patient to have equal control of their PHR.

In the next blog I will discuss privacy choices for your personal health care information. What can you stop and what can’t you stop?

Arrested velociped processes

What are the odds  he'll win?

Being a contract nurse working in the Phoenix Metro area for almost 20 years I have been in every electronic medical record, EMR system in the valley including state, federal and private hospitals and clinics. The focus needs to be on integrating the electronic medical record (EMR), and personal health records (PHR), of the health information technologies of (HIT) systems to function in tandem. Each arm of the HIT system i.e. EMR and PHR must be used as applied by design and integrated into the overall structures and functions of HIT in order to unify and streamline overall capabilities. Focusing only on the providers’ access to HIT is like the mouth trying to feed the hand. In most cases if not all cases that I have seen the issue is the cart has been placed before the horse. The patient is ultimately the one being served. HIT needs to reach out to those who are ultimately driving the economic vehicle for the industry, "the patient." Without patient involvement there is no economy to drive health care services including EMR systems. The best design application will integrate the PHR and the EMR into a singular concept. The concept of HIT will only reach its full potential when the integration and synchronization of the EMR and PHR arms of HIT is achieved under the HIT umbrella. Health care providers and their patients will continue to get wet under the rain of this technology until this integration is applied. The concept of HIT will never be fully actualized until the patient is brought into the mix as an active participant in creating solutions to the problems health care providers face in today’s EMR systems. As it is now it’s like a one legged man trying to run a relay race using crutches. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. In my next blog I will show health care providers how to make money with their EMR and how individuals can keep their health care private in a rapidly changing health care information landscape. So stay tuned.

HIPAA 5010: “You can’t sit back and wait"

In this country there is no privacy protection allowed.

HIPAA 5010 is a federally mandated electronic transaction standard requirement for the healthcare industry that must be completely implemented by January 1, 2012. I have been a registered nurse for 17 years and I have started a blog about the government and the alarming fact that you and your families personal privacy is at risk. The new HIPAA 5010 law that passed this year sets legal standards for the confiscation and de-identification of yours and your families’ personal electronic health care records. There is now no legal reason for permission to be obtained from you in order for your personal health care records to be confiscated and distributed to clearinghouses for de-identification and used for research. Most health care providers do not know this and certainly most U.S. citizens are not aware of this. Follow my blog and learn how to take control and keep the government and other private agencies from accessing your private health information. Follow my blog and learn how to protect your privacy at http://blogbur.blogspot.com

Don't turn red when you get caboosed!

ANSI 5010 is the new version of the federal HIPAA transaction standards that regulates the electronic transmission of your personal health care records. The new 5010 standards will replace the existing 4010/4010A1 version of HIPAA. The new standards make the ability to mine electronic data much easier. The secondary use of data under the new HIPAA 5010 de-identification rules raises several ethical considerations, with privacy being at the top of the list. The new HIPPA law sets standards for the de-identification of personal health care records in a way that there is no legal reason for permission to be obtained from the patient. This fact should alarm everyone. As health care providers and institutions race to meet federally mandated dates for implementation of electronic medical records most of them do not know that this will eliminate the absolute security and privacy of their patient’s most sensitive health issues.

There are numerous computer science studies that have been able to tie "unidentifiable data" back to individuals. Personal health information under the new HIPAA 5010 law is unique enough to eliminate only 87% of the U.S. population. Couple that with drill down to other public record data sources personal health records where easily and readily tied back to the individual. In one study conducted in the late 1990s by Latanya Sweeny, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University was able to pin unidentified health information back to William Weld the governor of Massachusetts. The fact is that there is a huge market for identifiable data.

A similar study was conducted by two University of Texas at Austin scientist in relation to deidentified information and it was determined that this information could in fact be reidentified. The study was discontinued after reaching an agreement with Federal Trade Commission investigators. Now if that doesn't send chills down your spine I don't know what will. The unauthorized release of personal health care information is a very big and very real risk under the new HIPAA 5010 deidentification guidelines. The key question is who determines accessibility and who makes the decision for what this information will be used for?

With this new law any private or government agency can obtain your personal health care records without your knowledge or consent. Most of the agencies that obtain personal health care records state that they are using them for research. However research is not defined under HIPAA 5010. Most of this so called "research" is compiled into lists by unscrupulous and exploitative corporations. These lists containing your personal health care records are then sold to the highest bidder for thousands of dollars. The trend is that the majority of the companies that buy these lists are marketing and sales corporations. They use the information gleaned from your records to target groups with specific advertising schemes. This is how these unscrupulous companies define research. This is what is being done in order to control the costs of pushing health care providers into electronic media. Are you getting that warm fuzzy feeling yet? I don't know how you feel about your personal health care records but mine are extensive I can see the pitchmen drooling over them right now. I don't want anyone looking at my personal health care records for any reason without my consent or permission. I wonder, how would you feel if you new that your most private health issues where put up for auction? 

Listen closely

Listen closely to what Ron Paul states has already happened about individual privacy concerning your health care records. It's short but its there and its a done deal passed into law by congress and in force to date.

The fearful diminish opportunity for vision

Think outside the box.http://medicard1.com

My goal is to capture the entire world with my vision. I ask myself how did the Wright brothers feel when every person in the world said man will never be able to fly when they where trying to bring their vision to life. Man would have never landed on the moon if their vision, their spirit, had been crushed by the myopia of those who only see the impossibilities. It is a sad thing for any person to limit their vision for fear of stepping into the impossible of most others. This fear limits the faith for vision in those not brave enough to step out and commit themselves to the eternal supply of possibilities that are abundant in the imaginations of brave individuals.