Hi zo1, its perfectly legal, in fact the entire program (HCUP) is carried out by the US federal government agency itself (Agency for Healthcare Quality and Rese

Hi zo1, its perfectly legal, in fact the entire program (HCUP) is carried out by the US federal government agency itself (Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research) for last two decades. We have only made the system available internally to a select group of doctors who sign agreements with the US government. Misuse of this data is punishable by a felony. I have personally met the director of the agency and they know about it, and have seen a demo. Regarding your point second point, the patient ownership of the data is not very well understood legally. Since most of it is transactional in nature. E.g. consider the Sorrell vs IMS Health judgement by the Supreme Court few years ago. Following paper in Harvard Journal of Law and Technology gives a good overview of the issues. http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/articles/pdf/v25/25HarvJLTech69.pdf http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/articles/pdf/v25/25HarvJLTech69....