National Health Intelligence Network and the Police State

Concern continues to grow over the use of private and confidential medical records by hospitals, physicians, law enforcement, credit bureaus, banks, ex-spouses, etc.

The potential for abusing the rights to medical privacy by the U.S. Government (USG) is real. Such abuse can be accomplished with the click of a mouse using Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), which represent ultra-convenient sources of information of an extremely private, deeply personal and confidential matter. The potential to use this information to extort compliant before from citizens is a very real danger

Few Americans understand the significance of linking EMRs to the planned National Health Information Network (NHIN) as envisioned by Senator Hillary Clinton, co-sponsor of Senate Bill 1693 (January 2008). This bill will enable the deployment of a complex data mining capability that will provide contextual matching criteria of an individual’s medical record with others. This will enable the USG to in effect “spy” on an individual via his/her medical records. This technique has been perfected in Internet data mining sites.

Recent news stories concerning the gross misuse of personal and private data by well-known political figures should give Americans pause to consider what precautions will be taken to protect their privacy.

The average American has no recourse to protect his/her private medical information, as the criminal sanctions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 have only been enforced twice against two individuals (one of those a sting and entrapment scenario sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) to obtain medical data on a F.B.I. agent seen by a physician)

EMRs and the NHIN will only make this situation that much more intolerable.