4 ms·

Aren't there major privacy concerns? It's so easy for an advertiser to get personal data from ad recipients that I'd expect private info could be inferred by th

Aren't there major privacy concerns? It's so easy for an advertiser to get personal data from ad recipients that I'd expect private info could be inferred by the office just giving out patient's email addresses.

jklein11 7y ago
Here is a link to the Cleveland Clinic's NPP as an example. I'm not sure which health system the OP was referencing. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/about/privacy-practices/cleveland-clinic-notice-of-privacy-practices-english.ashx?la=en https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/about/pr... If you look under Authorizations for other uses and disclosures there is language around using healthcare data for marketing. Specifically: > For example, most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes, uses and disclosures of health information for certain marketing purposes, and disclosures that constitute a sale of health information require your written authorization. It is very likely that in the many pages of paperwork you fill out when you are starting to see a new physician, you agree to have the health system share your health information for marketing purposes. There is also more general language around contacting a patient via email: > Contacting You. We may use and disclose health information to reach you about appointments and other matters. We may contact you by mail, telephone or email. For example, we may leave voice messages at the telephone number you provide us with, and we may respond to your email address. I think these would be enough of a defense if the OCR ever audited the practice around marketing emails received by patients. At the core of it, I'm not sure that this is such a bad thing. For example, targeting diabetics with ads for more effective insulin treatments hardly seems like a bad thing. I just think it is wrong that the patient is so far removed from the picture.

jklein11 7y ago

Here is a link to the Cleveland Clinic's NPP as an example. I'm not sure which health system the OP was referencing. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/about/privacy-practices/cleveland-clinic-notice-of-privacy-practices-english.ashx?la=en https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/about/pr... If you look under Authorizations for other uses and disclosures there is language around using healthcare data for marketing. Specifically: > For example, most uses and disclosures of psychotherapy notes, uses and disclosures of health information for certain marketing purposes, and disclosures that constitute a sale of health information require your written authorization. It is very likely that in the many pages of paperwork you fill out when you are starting to see a new physician, you agree to have the health system share your health information for marketing purposes. There is also more general language around contacting a patient via email: > Contacting You. We may use and disclose health information to reach you about appointments and other matters. We may contact you by mail, telephone or email. For example, we may leave voice messages at the telephone number you provide us with, and we may respond to your email address. I think these would be enough of a defense if the OCR ever audited the practice around marketing emails received by patients. At the core of it, I'm not sure that this is such a bad thing. For example, targeting diabetics with ads for more effective insulin treatments hardly seems like a bad thing. I just think it is wrong that the patient is so far removed from the picture.