HIPAA is a sham?
All of us optometric physicians are concerned about how HIPAA effects our practice- or specifically making sure we don’t get in trouble. Bruce Schneier, a security expert, has an interesting read on the latest HIPAA news. Apparently HIPAA’s enforcement may be weak.
I think most of us agree that HIPAA is just a big government bureaucracy that is unnecessary since we doctors have always protected patient privacy- it’s in our code of ethics. The big thing, now, is that we can’t ever slip-not even once, for fear of Big Brother repercussions. We can’t even let our employees slip. The common example is of an office assistant who tells a mother that he’s sorry to hear that her child is HIV+. The mother had not been told, so it becomes a big issue. The doctor, not the employee, suffers the legal/financial backlash.
Anyway, since HIPAA is apparently weak, can we expect it to be repealed and then reimbursed for the hassle it caused us in complying?
Here’s another article about HIPAA: http://kslradio.com/index.php?sid=211703&nid=19
So, the federal government has now made it harder for people to send flowers to their friends in the hospital. Congratulations, Big Brother.