THE NATIONAL HEALTH RECORDS DATABASE
All Americans will have their health records on the internet.
The “stimulus bill” of 2009 provided for a “nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and accurate exchange of health information” containing “each patient’s health information,” and “a certified electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014.”1 In other words, everybody will have their health information on the internet by 2014. Don’t worry, though, it will be password protected.
Most doctors are required to disclose their records to the government.
Doctors who are under the jurisdiction of HIPAA, or the “privacy regulations,” are required to provide all records of all patients to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upon demand. Patients cannot refuse to have their information disclosed.2 This is how the federal government can obtain patient information to put into their database. If doctors avoid certain activities, as Dr. Phillipi does, they are not subject to HIPAA, and are therefore able to protect patient records from being taken. “The proverbial country doctor who deals only in paper, or who has a computer but conducts none of the transactions referred to in section 1173(a) electronically, would not be a covered entity, and would not be subject to this legislation.”3
Dr. Phillipi is able to keep his patients’ records out of the national database.
The federal government may create a health record for Dr. Phillipi’s patients, but unless those patients consent to release their information, that record would be fairly empty. It would not contain Dr. Phillipi’s information. Any place where you see those privacy notices are HIPAA-covered entities. This includes most doctors and pharmacies. Dr. Phillipi has begun supplying many chronic medications. One of the reasons for this is to protect patient privacy.
1. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Title IV, Subtitle A, Sec. 3002 (b) (2) (B) (ii,iii), p. 454 at .
Pages 434 – 624 are all concerning health information.
2. “The Final Federal Medical Privacy Rule: The Definitive Guide,” March 6, 2003, by the Institute for Health Freedom, at See 45 CFR 164.502 (a) (2) (ii) at Click Here for the section of the Code of Federal Regulations that mandates that a HIPAA covered physician give patient information to the DHHS.
3. U.S. Assistant Attorney General Robert D. McCallum, Jr., U.S. Department of Justice, defense counsel for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Memorandum in Support of Defense’s Motion to Dismiss, November 30, 2001, available at . This was the result of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons lawsuit to prevent HIPAA from being implemented. The DHHS entered a motion to dismiss the suit, in which they conceded this “country doctor escape clause.”