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Note: Whether
or not the U.S. Congress passes legislation, we would be naive to believe
that the gathering of information on every man, woman and child in this nation...
and on this planet, is not an ongoing project. It is probably
safe to assume that they are at a point now of just 'keeping
current'. It would seem, then, that not using credit cards,
debit cards, bank checks, etc. would at least deter the eavesdropping
somewhat. When you fill out a questionnaire at a new medical
clinic or doctor's office, don't spill your guts. Give them info which
would be pertinent to your particular situation. Let them do their
own tracking and tracing.
The following was
sent to us in November, 1999
-
Jackie
The Medical Privacy Scam:
Big Brother Wants Your Medical Records
by Dawn Richardson
On Friday, Oct. 29th, President Clinton announced U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala's proposed rules which claim
to protect the privacy of Americans' personal health records that are either
transmitted or maintained electronically. These rules were published
in the Federal Register today, November 3rd [1999].
America is being scammed by HHS initiated press releases into thinking that
these proposed rules, if adopted, will keep us in control of our intimate
medical details. While HHS's rules spell out clear regulatory restrictions
for how doctors and health plans use our personal medical data, they also
dangerously grant federal, state, and local government health bureaucrats
broad unrestricted access and control of our private medical information
without our consent for anything that can be linked to the self-defined "national
priority purposes" of research, public health, government health data systems,
law enforcement and oversight of the health care system. (see summary
http://aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/pvcsumm.htm
)
The section of greatest concern in the rules is "Uses and disclosures permitted
without individual authorization."
Unconsented disclosures are rationalized for "public health surveillance,
investigations and interventions." Immunization and cancer registries
are also cited as beneficiaries of this governmental information grab.
HHS states in the rules, "We considered requiring individual authorization
for certain public health disclosures, but rejected this approach because
many important public health activities would not be possible if individual
authorization were required."
Specific government agencies listed as being granted access to individual
identifiable medical records under the pretext of "oversight" include "State
insurance commissions, State health professional licensure agencies, Offices
of Inspectors General of federal agencies, the Department of Justice, State
Medicaid fraud control units, Defense Criminal Investigative Services, the
Pension and Welfare Benefit Administration, the HHS Office for Civil Rights,
the FDA, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Education,
the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and the Environmental
Protection gency."
HHS also proposes "to permit covered entities to disclose protected health
information to a law enforcement official without individual authorization
for the conduct of lawful intelligence activities."
HHS will accept public comment on the proposed rules for 60 days from the
publication date of November 3rd. Public comments can be submitted electronically
to
http://aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/, and all 631 pages of the proposed rules are posted
at this same location. We are working on our formal comments/objections
to the proposed rules and will be distributing them to our email lists and
posting them on our web site for reference soon.
[this comment period has expired]
------------------
Dawn Richardson, President
PROVE(Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education)
P.O. Box 1071
Cedar Park, TX 78630-1071
(512) 918-8760
prove@vaccineinfo.net
(email)
http://vaccineinfo.net (web site)
------------------
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