Protecting Patient Privacy in a Health Care System That Hoards and Shares Data

***NEWS RELEASE***

For Immediate Release 
June 20, 2016

CONTACT: Beth Harrison, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com or Deborah Hamilton, Hamilton Strategies, 215.815.7716, 610.584.1096, ext. 102

Protecting Patient Privacy in a Health Care System That Hoards and Shares Data

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom: Doctor’s Offices and Clinics That Offer Patient Freedom Aren’t Under the Thumb of Intrusive and Costly Electronic Health Records

ST. PAUL, Minn.—If there’s one thing that feeds the monster of government health care, it’s data. As corporations and government agencies seek to access more and more private medical data in real time from electronic medical records, there is an increasing number of doctors and patients that wants to keep that information where it belongs—in the exam room.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org) has long educated patients about the dangers of having their private, personal medical data shared with countless government entities through means such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs), the HIPAA “no- privacy” act and enrollment in Obamacare.

“We recently shared in CCHF’s ‘Health Freedom Minute’ that 39 percent of American doctors think EHRs have worsened health care, compared to just 11 percent of European doctors,” said Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF. “U.S. doctors don’t like the EHR system because it was designed for coding and billing rather than caring for patients. EHRs are distracting, and EHR functions mean that too much irrelevant data hides the meaningful data doctors truly need. EHRs make taking care of patients less efficient and more time-consuming. No wonder American doctors think they are unsafe!

“Doctor’s offices and clinics that strive to offer their patients freedom, a return to true care and more affordable health care aren’t bound by expensive and care-compromising EHR systems because they are not bound by corporate contracts,” Brase continued. “In addition to protecting their patients’ private health data, not having an EHR system also lowers operating costs, translating to a less expensive way of doing health care for patients. It’s refreshing to hear that the new president of the American Medical Association, Andrew W. Gurman, has skipped the EHR altogether.” (Read more here: http://www.hcplive.com/medical-news/andy-gurman-md-takes-reins- as-ama-president)

Patients are looking for alternative systems that protect their confidentiality and the privacy of their personal data—and more and more doctors are offering them—since two Supreme Court decisions kept the increasingly “unaffordable” Affordable Care Act and its data-reporting activities alive. Both with anniversaries this month, the first SCOTUS decision, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, was decided on June 28, 2012. It ruled the Obamacare fee for not having coverage was a tax rather than a penalty or a mandate. Then last year, SCOTUS saved the ACA again in King v. Burwell by declaring on June 25 that Obamacare subsidies were legal in all states.

CCHF is a national patient-centered health freedom organization existing to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights that focuses on critical health care issues such as Obamacare, REAL ID, compromised baby DNA and the dangers of Electronic Health Records.

For more information about CCHF, visit its web site at www.cchfreedom.org, its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cchfreedom or its Twitter feed, @CCHFreedom.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, a patient-centered national health freedom organization based in St. Paul, Minn., exists to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights. CCHF sponsors the daily, 60-second radio feature, Health Freedom Minute, which airs on more than 400 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network. Listeners can learn more about the agenda behind health care initiatives and steps they can take to protect their health care choices, rights and privacy. For information on how to add “Health Freedom Minute” to a station lineup, contact Michael Hamilton at mhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com, (610) 584-1096 or (215) 519- 4838.

CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase, R.N., has been called one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care” and one of “Minnesota’s 100 Most Influential Health Care Leaders.” A public health nurse, Brase has been interviewed by CNN, Fox News, Minnesota Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, NBC’s Today Show, NPR, New York Public Radio, the Associated Press, Modern Healthcare, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Washington Times, among others. She is at the forefront of informing the public of crucial health issues, such as intrusive wellness and prevention initiatives in Obamacare, patient privacy, informed consent, the dangers of “evidence-based medicine” and the implications of state and federal health care reform

###

For more information or to interview Twila Brase of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, contact Beth Harrison at 610-584-1096, ext. 104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com or Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, ext. 102.