Your health care records under Big Business
p2pnet news | Advertising:- Google, Microsoft and other mega US businesses are being accepted as major controllers of your health care records.
“The electronic medical record field remains in its infancy,” says the Washington Post. “While U.S. privacy laws govern actions by medical providers such as doctors, there is little in the way of other established privacy, security and data usage standards despite decades of industry efforts.”
Backers, “which also include some doctors and employer groups,” hope to break a stalemate in moving medical records online, “sparked by consumer fears that their personal information will be abused, or held against them,”says the story.
It has James Dempsey, deputy director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy rights group, “that accepts some industry funding,” describing the situation as a “policy and privacy logjam” which has, “constricted some of the consumer uptake of these services”.
“Principles” for personal health records, “include an audit trail to track use of the data, a dispute resolution process for consumers who believe their personal information has been misused and a ban on using data to discriminate in employment,” says the Washington Post, going on also “signing on to the principles” are WebMD Health Corp, Consumers Union, seniors’ lobbying group AARP; and America’s Health Insurance Plans, “representing big insurers such as Aetna”.
However, “Their approach is build a system and we’ll find out about privacy after the fact,” says the American Civil Liberties Union’s Tim Sparapani. The ACLU objects to the current version of the bill, “because it lacks language letting patients review their own files and correct bad data”.
States the Washington Post:
“Separately, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday debated a bill to set up a national coordinator for health information and encourage adoption of electronic technology. A companion bill is working its way through the Senate, though its prospects are unclear. Concerns over privacy protections for consumers have stalled progress.”
Microsoft says Kaiser Permanente, the biggest U.S. health maintenance organization, will use Microsoft’s HealthVault platform to link Kaiser employees who, “volunteer to have their records transferred,” says the story, adding:
“Google sells Google Health, a U.S. health data service that combines the leading Web company’s search services with a user’s personal health records online.”
‘Advertisers would pay absurd amounts of money …’
Google Health is mooted as a ’service’ designed to, “give users more control over their personal healthcare,” said the Financial Times at the beginning of the year.
However, said p2pnet, “this has absolutely nothing to do with giving users more control: it’s predicated solely on increasing Google’s access to personal and private data so they can be reused for marketing and advertising purposes.
The plans would. “put Google’s database of health records at the heart of a broader health information system that draws in health insurers, doctors and others, potentially giving the internet company a central role as the health industry moves towards greater use of information technology,” said the FT.
Google has been, “disingenuously pretending advertising is the last thing on his mind,” said p2pnet.
However, “Google said it wouldn’t start out selling ads but wouldn’t rule it out,” said USA Today, going on:
“Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, firmly believes ads will happen.”
After all, “Advertisers would pay absurd amounts of money to be seen when someone wants to, say, refill a subscription online,’ he says in the story.
“This is more lucrative than commerce-related search.”
“Google joins other firms vying for business in the market, including Microsoft, ‘which introduced its HealthVault service last year, and Revolution Health, which was started by AOL co-founder Steve Case,’ says the San Francisco Chronicle.
Meanwhile, “Certain features of Google Health can be used in conjunction with other Google products, and those features may share information to provide a better user experience and to improve the quality of our services,” admits Google innocently under Google Health Privacy Policy , continuing >>>
1. If you share your information with others, you can view a list of who has access to your information and you can revoke sharing privileges at any time. When you revoke someone`s ability to read your health information, that party will no longer be able to read your information, but may have already seen or may retain a copy of the information.
2. Google Health contains a directory of third-party websites that are capable of securely sending information to Google Health. These websites (which may include your medical provider) may give more information about certain conditions or extend the functionality of Google Health in other ways. By creating a link to these websites, you give them permission to send you information such as medical records, prescription histories, or test reports.
3. You can approve access for some of these websites to view your health information. If a website accesses your health information and stores a copy of your information, that copy will be governed by that website`s privacy policy. Others at that facility like an on-call doctor may be able to view your information. Google is not responsible for the content, performance, or privacy policies of third-party websites.
4. Some of these third-party websites will be covered by federal and state health privacy laws (such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA), and those laws will govern how they may use and share your information. As a result, you must authorize these providers to send information to your Google Health account. With that authorization, you also give them permission to send certain types of health information (such as mental health records) that are protected by federal and state laws and require special authorization. When you ask Google to send your health information to others, you will also be giving Google permission to send those certain types of health information.
No doubt Google has organised a separate board comprising people who have nothing to do with the company or any entities involved with it to keep an eye on things.
But no, it’s appointed itself as overseer.
“All third-party websites listed in the directory are contractually required to abide by the Google Health Developer Policies, which establish strict privacy standards for how they collect, use, or share your information,” it states.
Stay tuned.
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.Stumble It!
Washington Post – Electronic health-record standards agreed, June 25, 2008
Financial Times – Google reveals plans for health database, February 29, 2008
p2pnet – Dr Google – on the way, February 29, 2008
USA Today – Prognosis is bright for Google`s health records plan, February 28, 2008
San Francisco Chronicle – Google ready to let patients keep track online, February 29, 2008
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