Are your medical records safe from prying eyes?

More and more people and agencies are getting into our medical records. The following article from Berkeley National Laboratory addresses this concern.

Who Gets to See Your Records?

Your health records use to be considered a private matter between your doctor and you. With the continued growth of the third person health maintenance organizations (HMO's), doctors are required to share their records with each other and the HMO's.

A HMO provides a form of health coverage very different from the traditional insurance plans in the past. Each participant in an HMO, agrees to use a specified network of medical providers(doctors and hospitals). In return the HMO will usually offer broader coverage with a lower out of pocket expense to the user.

Who Has Access to Your Records?

Now, without your knowledge, your health records are sometimes being perused by employers, insurance companies, and drug manufacturing companies. Because medical records contain some sensitive information, such as past drug use or genetic predisposition to various diseases, it's important to keep this information truly "private."
In a typical teaching hospital, many people can have access to your medical reports. Anyone from the nursing staff to the x-ray technician can have a look at your records. As hospitals begin to computerize their medical records, there is a legitimate fear that more people will have even more access to your medical records.

Hospitals are not the only ones archiving medical records on patients. Data banks of such organizations as health maintenance organizations (HMO's) and drug companies are also gathering information and storing them in a computer format. By the linking of these computers together, some companies are beginning to sell and trade this valuable information across this vast network of computers.

Your medical records may also be used in a medical court case, if you are involved in a case in which your medical condition is an issue. The revenant parts of your record may be copied and introduced into a court case.

How is this Information Being Used?

In a recent 1993 Harris Poll, more than a quarter of the people who responded said that information about them had been improperly disclosed. Below is a list of some agencies who already have access to your medical information:

Health and Life Insurance companies require you to release your records before they will issue a policy to you.

Government agencies such as Medicare or Social Security Administration

The Medical Information Bureau has approximately 15 million files in a central database. Every time you file an insurance claim, a copy of this information goes to MIB.

Some institutions gather medical information on individuals and sell this information to drug companies.

How Does One Keep it Private?

Experts estimate that during a typical stay in a hospital, a patient's record could be viewed by as many as 77 different people. Having a patient's record on computer would most likely increase that number dramatically. Some hospitals have developed procedures to protect the confidentiality of their electronic information.

Some of these measures include:

The use of passwords to limit access to the records.

Setting up a system that tracks who has been accessing the records and what information they examined or modified. (This is called an audit trail. Patients know who has seen their records, and medical personnel are made aware that their actions may be monitored.)

Doctors can "tag" a record that they feel is particularly sensitive. If another physician would like to see the record, then they would first contact the primary doctor to view this information.

Note: It does not matter what elaborate security system is implemented. Human errors and unauthorized entrances are always a danger to releasing sensitive material.

What can you do?

Below are some suggestions has to how safeguard some of your personal medical privacy:

You can obtain a copy of medical record for a small fee from the Medical Information Bureau (617/426-3660), which is the agency used by more than 750 insurance companies to calculate financial risk. If you detect any errors(in consultation with your doctor), you can contact the bureau and demand that the record be corrected immediately.

If you are rejected for insurance, ask why.

When you sign a waiver for the release of your medical records, try to limit the amount of information released.

If you are participating in an informal health screening, find out what uses will be made of the medical information that is collected.

If you are concerned about the lack of strong legislation regarding privacy of medical records, you can always contact your state and federal legislators.

Credit: Berkeley National Laboratory