Senator Kuehl’s Letter to CA Governor Regarding SB 840
Date: Wednesday October 22, 2008Posted in: Health, Legislation
Tagged: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Electronic Health Records, Insurance, Senate Bill 840 (Kuehl) (California), Sheila Kuehl, Universal Health Care
Senator Sheila Kuehl recently (mid-September) wrote a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger regarding California’s health care system. She wrote asking the Governor to seriously look at California’s current health care delivery system and its faults and to personally allow her to answer questions he may have clarifying the bill’s affect. Also covered in the letter is lauding of the insurance/medical industries for not converting medical records to electronic form to streamline health care.
California desperately needs real healthcare reform that strikes directly at the heart of insurance costs that are growing 2-3 times faster than workers wages every year. A system where each of California’s 36 million residents are segregated into dozens of different insurance plans according to whether they are young or old, sick or healthy, rich or poor, and where they live or work requires an unconscionable level of administrative complexity and constant actuarial risk analysis. It conservatively costs 30% of every dollar we spend on healthcare just to keep track of all the different populations and benefit groupings to which each person belongs.
Kuehl mentions that the chief point of Senate Bill 840 is not to radically change the health care delivery system, rather to lump everyone (”undesirable” or not) into one risk assessment group. An independent analysis group (and backed by California’s own legislative analyst) noted that universal health care within California would save the state $20 billion and could be used to purchase health care.
The letter also says that it would make California competitive both economically (because businesses wouldn’t help bare the costs of health care) but also with other industrialized nations. In saving both individuals, families and employers (including the state of California) money, it would stimulate the economy because people will have more money in their pockets to spend because of less (money) devoted to health care.
Polls show that Californians support this concept of universal public health insurance combined with privately delivered care (embodied by SB 840), and that support is growing fast. Polls show that a majority of Republicans support universal health care, and that 59% of physicians support “government legislation to establish national health insurance”, a 10% point increase in just 5 years.
Read the whole letter from Sheila Kuehl to Governor Schwarzenegger here: Senator Kuehl’s Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger Regarding SB 840
Selling Medical Treatment Records: Booming Business?
Date: Tuesday August 5, 2008Posted in: Business, Civil Liberties, Health, Legal, Legislation, Media
Tagged: Department of Health and Human Services, Electronic Health Records, Federal Trade Commission, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Insurance, United States
A recent Washington Post article suggests that health and life insurers are scouring medical records in evaluating potential new clients. These reports, akin to “credit reports,” will hold the prescription information for more than 200 million American citizens. While the industry has yet to take off, it is expected to in the coming age of electronic medical records.
In the past, insurers would query the patient’s past medical records from individual physicians the patient has had contact with; soon insurers will contact a third party data-mining company which has pre-compiled records on many Americans. While the practice is promised to streamline the costs of health care, privacy advocates have their doubts. Insurers are optimistic about the technologies citing older methods of obtaining records more costly (hundreds of dollars per query) and time consuming and they may soon be able to quickly provide decisions within the same day or even on the spot for about fifteen dollars.
Advocates cite that many consumers must sign the form allowing insurers to release this information if they want health insurance, a big no-no privacy advocates state. It effectively says “You must allow us to disperse your medical records in order to receive coverage.” Unfortunately federal legislation does not protect the privacy of these consumers if they have signed a release form allowing the insurers to release their records.
Aetna Planning to Link Online Medical Records with Research
Date: Thursday March 20, 2008Posted in: Business, Health, Media
Tagged: Aetna, Electronic Health Records, Insurance, New York Times
Aetna announced its plan to offer its nearly 17 million enrollees access to their online medical records linked with cutting-edge research in an effort to help enrollees manage their own health care. This has not gone without scrutiny by privacy advocates citing “Do you trust the insurance companies?”
This has been an ongoing issue for years as insurance companies share information, it could end up affecting individuals’ coverage based on diagnosis from previous insurers. The information provided by the insurance company will be more tailored to the individual’s specific diagnosis and pre-existing conditions, which many say will help with misunderstandings in treatment.
Insured members of many agencies have been very reluctant to add personal health records as they see formidable privacy issues with information like this in the future.
Source: NY Times in an article titled: Aetna to Offer an Online Service That Helps Patients Link Records and Research
Urge Congress to Ensure Patient Privacy
Date: Thursday November 8, 2007Posted in: Advocacy, Civil Liberties, Health, Legislation, Media
Tagged: Electronic Health Records, Health Information Privacy and Security Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Patrick Leahy, United States Congress
Three fourths of the American public want Congress to ensure that our right to health privacy is protected in electronic systems and that electronic health databases and systems are truly secure . Americans have no Federal statutory right to health privacy today.
Despite the good intentions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and its “Privacy Rule”, the current regulations leave all Americans’ personal health information completely vulnerable and exposed. State laws, common laws and the Constitution are there for protection. Yet the HIPAA “Privacy Rule” is really a “Disclosure Rule” that authorizes more than 4 million entities to use and disclose an individual’s health information. This disclosure is without the individual’s consent and over their objections.
