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Further down: ... privacy experts said it appeared to be permissible under federal law. That law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 19
by McDev 7y ago
Further down:
... privacy experts said it appeared to be permissible under federal law. That law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, generally allows hospitals to share data with business partners without telling patients, as long as the information is used “only to help the covered entity carry out its health-care functions.”
- ta1234567890 7y agoThank you and Wow! That is a very broad statement within HIPAA and subject to interpretation, which leaves a huge door open for marketers to "help covered entities carry out their health-care functions"
- dmix 7y agoThe point of HIPAA wasn’t really consumer privacy protection. It’s mostly just a side effect.
- pkaye 7y agoHIPAA has lots of loopholes. For example "Covered entities must implement reasonable safeguards to limit incidental, and avoid prohibited, uses and disclosures." There is no requirements to have sound proof walls. If your neighbor in the shared room overhears a conversation with a doctor, too bad.
- spiznnx 7y agoMy doctor's lobby has a sign that says "please wait in line here, to respect the privacy of other patients", about 4 feet from the desk. The desk itself is probably wider than 4 feet.
- wffurr 7y agos/marketers/machine learning researchers and healthcare software designers.
- noelsusman 7y agoMarketing is specifically called out in the law as not being a healthcare function. It requires a separate authorization of consent from each patient before any of their data can be used for marketing purposes.
- rkagerer 7y agoIs the "carry out its health-care functions" argument a stretch? Something is seriously broken with a system that lets them give away your health data without your consent, and the lack of anonymization only compounds the injury.