HIPPA and the Privacy Rights of Patients

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known as HIPAA, began as a "portability act" to enable people to "port" their health insurance coverage as they transitioned from one job to another. HIPAA gradually evolved to include so much more than just the convenience of interim health insurance coverage and portability.

Today, it is a complicated set of regulations, and in many cases, health care providers no longer require patient consent to use information technology to transfer the patient's medical records from one location to another. The Privacy Rule, which was an amendment to the original Act, provides that "the consent provisions... are replaced with a new provision...that provides regulatory permission for covered entities to use and disclose protected health information for treatment, payment, or health care operations." (Excerpt from the 2002 Amendment to the Privacy Rule.)

According to patientprivacyrights.org, "HIPAA (initially) produced absurd results because patients were no longer asked what medical information they wanted shared and what information they wanted to be kept private. Barriers were created that patients didn't want, and access was granted to private corporations, individuals and government agencies that patients would never have agreed to.

Even more damaging, the amendments to the "Privacy Rule" opened the nation's sensitive health records to millions of providers, employers, government agencies, insurance companies, billing firms, transcription services, pharmacy benefit managers, pharmaceutical companies, data miners, creditors and more for any "routine" use."

What most of us don't realize is that when we sign the HIPPA form in our medical practitioner's office, there are many things that third parties can do with our medical records, and even use it to engage in direct marketing. Far from protecting our privacy, HIPAA permits some degree of involuntary disclosure without knowledge as to who gets our information or how. This leads to troubling questions: for instance, is our medical history and information being sold to the highest bidder? Are employers using this access to screen out otherwise qualified candidates? Are your child's chances of being accepted into a particular school or university compromised by an early childhood diagnosis of ADHD or some other ailment? HIPAA does offer some protections, but many patients may be surprised to learn how many loopholes there are in HIPAA requirements.

So, where does this leave us? With the ball squarely in our court, that's where! There are ways for patients to take action and protect the privacy of their personal health records. One of these ways is to access the Patient Privacy Toolkit, provided by the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation (PPR) located in Austin, TX. PPR is a national health privacy watchdog and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring our right to control our medical privacy.

John Horton is President and Founder of LegitScript, and a former aide in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). After five years working for the "Drug Czar," John Horton founded LegitScript with the intent of helping people be sure that they are buying safe and genuine prescription medication on the Internet. LegitScript, is an internet enforcement service group, that has been successfully investigating sites to determine whether or not such sites are in compliance with the law and accepted standards of medical and pharmacy practice ethics.

Human Rights In US

Among the industrial nations the United States is unique in many ways. The capitalist economics of the United States that promotes free trade, private ownership, laissez faire, consumerism, individualism and claims for welfare is the source of paradoxes. It is long that commentators are criticizing the condition on the health care. The last of them is the American documentary director, Michael Moore with his fabulous "Sicko". In it he analyzes like a physician the ill health care of his country.

Pharmaceutical products are a large part of a nation's health care. Health Care, respectively, is a major component in promoting the justice, as a Human Rights credo in a society. One of the realms in which the US should manage to make reformation, thus, is the health care provisions and policies.

Health Care in US

The present feather on the US cap regarding health care are the two programs of Medicare and Medicaid which are in their own turns under criticism.

The public health care debates began somewhere around the beginning of the 20th century. During the century of efforts that would ultimately determine the fate of the condition, all American presidents were assumed to be advocates of national health care. But, as the present conditions reveal, each time there was an obstacle in the way. FDR, for example, left it high and dry lest the Social Security plan be blocked and doomed. The advent of the cold war disreputated it as the "socialized medicine". However 40s and 50s were the summits of the movement of the public health care as a more serious program. A system then, unique among industrial nations, America, in the 1950s had a health care system that was tied with employment. Of course, there were inefficiencies in such a system to those suffering low income, women, and the agrarians and workers in the remote areas.

Kennedy and Johnson, also, were advocates of the program but they were limited by the votes of the republican congress. Finally, when the congress turned to democrats, the Medicare and Medicaid programs were passed. And most disastrous was the Watergate which abandoned the promised national health care by President Nixon for another run. Then, "instead of producing medical care and related services itself, the government chose- as it usually did in America- to rely on the market. ... Government production of medical care diminished as government funding increased and health care was outsourced to private providers."(ibid: 261) Thus began the story of the private American health care.

"From 1972, to 1994, the Medical population increased from 18 to 35 million. In the same years, the costs of the program soared from $8 billion to &144 billion... and by 1980s, Medicaid often was the largest program in state budgets, and by the 1990s it cost governors six times as much as AFDC."(ibid: 262) naturally, from this point cost cutting began. Under President Reagan, the Prospective payment system decreased the radius of the umbrella. "As in the familiar master narrative of policy reform, policy makers judged their success by the lower numbers and paid little attention to the consequences for patients or clients."(ibid: 264) this led to the 20 percent decrease of Medicare during 80s. At this very historical point, the business interests began exploiting the profitable health care as a new industry. Katz says that in the 80s, the number of investors in health services was one forth of the totals.

The New Deal of President Clinton, The President Health Security Plan, was a final attempt to rescue the health care, but it failed. He observed that almost 37 employers worked without the usual employer's coverage, because they worked for small employers who didn't carry insurance. Those with insurance worried about their situation in the case of losing their jobs. The policy of the Clinton committee on the reform was not to follow the excellent model of other industrialized nations, but to create a distinguished one for the sake of uniqueness. This is known as the managing competition which is considered as the reason for the defeat of the reform.

Intellectual Property

IP, Intellectual Property, is a kind of patent regulated as the legal protection of the technological products for the companies or individuals that are the investors and inventors of it.

The issue that is the concern of this paper is the influence of such laws, and specifically, this law on the welfare consumers, people, in the United States. Data released in 2004 by the Census Bureau show that "the number of uninsured Americans stood at 45.8 million in 2004, an increase of 800,000 people over the number uninsured in 2003 (45.0 million). The percentage of people without health insurance has been 15.7 percent in 2004.

The current stated United States policy on intellectual property, whose main focus is on preserving its unparalleled strength in economic, political and military affairs, therefore raises particular concerns. That is "the United States policy, by focusing exclusively on the rights of its export industries, may lead to very restrictive interpretations of the flexibilities contained in the international agreements, to the detriment of public health needs."(Musungu & Oh: 83) On the other hand, the domestic implications of the acts and the policy should not be ignored.

Conclusion

Pharmaceutical products, is the component of the broader concern, i.e. health care system, that is vulnerable to the implementations of IP. Obviously, those poor within the range of the aforementioned middle class are the victims of such financial patents which restrict the volume, availability and therefore the price of the products. Obviously, suffering the absence of insurance, public and private, on the other hand confronting a killing expensive drug market, is afflicting the members of the middle class. Specially when regarding adding the exertion of mafia and black markets of drug appreciated by high prices and low availability. Moore show the dramatic side of the story by presenting different cases of suffering deprivation, especially the deprivation of the 9/11 fire fighters from any kind of health care coverage.

Birth Injuries - What Are Your Rights?

The birth of a child is the happiest moment in the life of parents, and luckily, most of the deliveries go smoothly without any problem. Undesirably problems can occur during pregnancy and delivery. These problem and complications are collectively recognised as birth injuries. Birth injuries can be minor or severe, and can have long lasting impact on the child its family and on their quality of life as well. Due to birth injuries, a joyous time turns into a grievous one in a few minutes. Problems in the procedure of labour, and delivery may lead to wide variety of troubles for the newborn.

Cerebral palsy is one of the most severe birth injuries. The other types of birth injuries are Erbs palsy, Forceps and vacuum injuries, bruising, scratching, cuts, facial paralysis, fractures, broken bones, soft tissue injuries, brain damage, temporary or permanent paralysis and broken blood vessels in the eye. They are one of the most dreadful sorts of personal injuries in the entire world. According to the U.S. National Healthcare Quality Report (2003), almost 7 birth injuries take place in every 1,000 births.

Whether reason of the birth injury was negligence, inappropriate medical treatment, wrong use of a medical device, or failure to make a correct diagnosis, you have the privilege to protect your human rights and the right to be compensated for your pain and distress. In such situations, where the damage was avoidable, it is imperative that the legal rights of the baby and his or her parents, both are fully protected.

If your baby has been the prey of a birth injury, it is tremendously important that you contact a birth injury attorney. In addition, in this situation, you have the right to bring a medical malpractice claim. If a child dies due to a birth injury, the parents have the right to bring a wrongful death claim. All physicians should give their patients accepted standard of care.

Parents of the victims have the right to take legal action against any person, corporation or body that is liable for the injury, including private citizens, shops, producers, insurance corporations, large businesses and government groups. You have the right to select the lawyer of your own choice.

The child and his or her parents may be facilitated against the damages stemming from a birth injury case. Some kinds of damages may be pain and anguish, unending physical disability, loss of future earnings of the child, emotional suffering and loss of companionship. If the child is living, the parents or a guardian can bring a legal claim and sue for the damages.

Each country has its own laws and rules, regarding the amount of compensation given in a birth injury lawsuit. Damages presented for successful lawsuit will usually go to the child, occasionally in the form of a trust. Dealing with a birth injury is not an easy job, and it is always emotional.

It is important to note that not every single birth injury is legally accountable; yours may be. If you are hesitating to take legal action, you can run out of time. If a sufficient amount of time passes then, legally, you will no longer be applicable to sue the responsible parties for the wrong they did.

Claim advice for victims of Birth Injuries.