Concerns Regarding SB840 Spark Controversy About Patient Confidentiality

California medical privacy advocates express doubts about SB 840's provisioning for the confidentiality of state controlled medical records

Los Angeles (PRWEB) June 11, 2007 -- As Michael Moore gets ready to testify at the Sacramento Capitol in support of a bill promising universal health care to all Californians, advocates for medical record privacy see dangers in "California Health Insurance Reliability Act", or S.B. 840, creating the potential for a "big brother" data collection system run by the state, according to California nurse Barbara Clark.

"SB 840 offers no provisions for the confidentiality of patient medical records and such a state system would be exempted from the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This means medical records could be used for illegitimate political purposes with no accountability or recourse to the patient," said privacy advocate Barbara Clark, R.N., N.P.

This nurse has an on-going federal lawsuit in Sacramento alleging that a claims adjuster and an attorney for the Adventist Health System (Roseville, Ca) illegally used her medical records in an attempt to procure a paltry settlement in her on-going workers' compensation case by using the threat of public dissemination of the medical records as bargaining leverage. See: U.S.D.C. for the E.D.C. (Sacramento) Case no. S-07-1086-FCD-KJM. Another federal case remains on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Case no. 06-16333.

"SB 840 needs a provision for the appointment of a Chief Privacy Officer (CPO). The authorizing federal legislation creating the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had a provision for a CPO, SB 840 should do the same," she said.

For more information about the debate see:

www.MyStateFraudStory.com , www.AlmsotBroken.com , www.BarbClark.org , www.ericdrew.com

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