Action Alerts • Oct 2016 • Medical Records • Patient Privacy

MN PRIVACY ALERT! EXTENDED DEADLINE! Protect YOUR Medical Records!

ACTION ALERT

PLEASE COMMENT TODAY!

BELOW: The consent and privacy rights you 
could LOSE over your medical records  

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Mon, Oct. 24, 2016 at 7:00 pm

Who will control your medical records? We believe that the MN Department of Health (MDH) is gathering information from insurers, hospitals and others to convince state legislators to REPEAL Minnesota's stongest-in-the-nation medical privacy law. 

You have an extension to file your comments! (now due Monday, October 24 at 7:00pm.)

MDH and the coalition of health-care industry members want complete access to your data. If they succeed, your medical record data will be shared without your consent to countless outsiders for:

  • Treatment (62-word definition includes sharing with "third parties")
  • Payment (64-word definition includes "medical necessity" determinations)
  • Health Care Operations (390-word "everything but kitchen sink" definition)
  • Medical, Genetic and Health-Data Research 
  • Military Personnel (unless required by federal law)
  • Law Enforcement (without a warrant)
  • Funeral Directors
  • National Security Purposes (unless required by federal law)

Today, YOU have consent rights over this sharing only because of MN privacy laws that unlike HIPAA actually protect your privacy and consent rights. The Mayo Clinic put out a Notice of Privacy Practices that highlights each of these MN privacy rights guaranteed by the Minnesota Health Records Act.

The Minnesota Department of Health, in their Request for Information, states: 

"Minnesota is nearly unique among states in requiring patient consent to disclose any type of health information to other providers, including for treatment purposes."

They're right! Minnesota is "unique!" We have the strongest privacy laws in the nation and the MN Department of Health and their Big Health collaborators want to take that away from us!
 

TAKE ACTION TODAY:

Send a simple email to MDH (MN.eHealth@state.mn.us). NOTE: Use the subject line: "RFI: MHRA Costs and Impacts". ALSO: cc your legislators (find your legislators) and CCHF (info@cchfreedom.org).

SAMPLE EMAIL - Use this sample to guide your comments:

TO: MDH Office of Health Information Technology

RE: MDH 9/16/16 RFI ON MN HEALTH RECORDS ACT

The MDH request for information from the public regarding the MN Health Records Act is complex. The questions seem focused more on industry concerns than patient consent requirements and I'm not sure how my answers will be interpreted. 

So to make my position as a Minnesota resident and patient clear,  I am submitting this statement in response to the RFI. I support the MHRA and its current patient consent requirements for sharing of medical information. The law as it stands today gives me the right to determine what doctors, hospitals, clinics and business associates my data is shared with for payment, treatment, health care operations and more.

It is important that Minnesota does not remove or change the Minnesota Health Records Act because this law protects each and every Minnesotan.

As you are collecting responses to the RFI to submit to legislators, please include my statement of support for the MHRA consent requirements as they exist today and my complete opposition to repealing or eliminating these protective patient consent requirements. 

Respectfully submitted,
Name, City

 

Please take the 5-10 minutes to send an email now to show your support for Minnesota privacy laws.

With your emails, we can stop this attack and help keep you in control of the use and sharing of your private medical information!