Patient Privacy

Health Care Surveillance:  HIPAA—The Grand Deception

Part 1 in a Series on How Private Health Information is No Longer Private

ST. PAUL, Minn.— Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom(CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org) wants Americans to know of yet another government intrusion into their private health information.

It’s the HIPAA privacy rule—and there’s a grand deception behind it.

HIPAA Privacy Notice - Why are you asked to sign a form?

Here is what HHS says about signing:

Acknowledgement of Notice Receipt. A covered health care provider with a direct treatment relationship with individuals must make a good faith effort to obtain written acknowledgement from patients of receipt of the privacy practices notice.54 The Privacy Rule does not prescribe any particular content for the acknowledgement....

The Obamacare Surveillance System

There is an Obamacare surveillance system. Surveillance is national news today...except in health care. That needs to change. The National Security Administration (NSA) is not the only agency spying on citizens without their consent or knowledge. And the problem is going to get worse under the federal reform law, empowering the IRS in ways we've never seen before.

HIX Application Data - Single

Personal Data Required to Apply for Obamacare in ACA Exchanges

Exchange Coverage Application Form – Single Adult, Not Offered Employer Coverage

MN Dept. of Health Registries

This is a list of all the data the MN Department of Health collects and how they use it.

"Big Brother" Prescription Tracking System Proposed

Tracking is a favorite federal activity. Two bills in Congress would create prescription-tracking systems, ostensibly to identify and locate counterfeit drugs: a bipartisan 85-page House bill and a bipartisan 107-page Senate bill.

Summary and Justification for HIX IT Development

Capital Asset Summary for the Dept. of Health and Human Services for the IT Data management and data warehouse information system that will function as " the perpetual central repository for capturing, aggregating, and analyzing information on health insurance coverage... The data warehouse is formally known as Multidimensional Insurance Data Analytics System (MIDAS) and is built on industry leading analytics, data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) technologies." 

Without Consent - "Genetic Grab" List from MDH

Four months into the legislative session, and after many requests, the Minnesota Department of Health has provided the state legislature with a list of all the genetic information (biological specimens and health data) that they have been collecting, using, storing and disseminating without legislative authority or individual written consent -- as required by the Minnesota Genetic Privacy Act (M.S. 13.386). The list was provided shortly before a floor vote on April 18 to give MDH retrospective legal protection against MGPA violation lawsuits as well as prospective authority to collect, store, use and share any and all genetic information on individuals without the individual's consent, long into the future.

The FIRST PAGE includes data that the statutes allow. The SECOND AND THIRD page is DNA and data they've collected and used by making up their own rules. There may be a statute listed, but it doesn't give them express authority to do what they've been doing in violation of the law. HF 695 and SF 745 will protect them from lawsuits forever...and give MDH ownership claims to the DNA of citizens. PETITION: http://bit.ly/SayNoDNABiobank

Twila Speaking at DNA BioBank Press Conference

On April 10, 2013, CCHF Presidenta Twila Brase spoke at a press conference hosted by Rep. Peggy Scott opposing the creation of a DNA BioBank by the state of Minnesota. She was joined Dr. Michelle Goodwin, a Bioethics professor from the U of M, and several other members of the MN House and Senate.

CCHF Evidence of Federal Control over State Exchanges

The Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.com) has discovered a newly created federal system of records. The system, called the “Health Insurance Exchange Program,” was finalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on March 6, 2013 and will house much of each state’s health insurance exchange information, including personally identifiable information, private health data, employment and insurance data, and qualified employer information in a single, federal records system.