Government-Speak and Health Care: A Slippery Slope

I am dumbfounded by the Government’s insistence on penetrating the personal lives of everyday Americans. The latest effort put forth by Uncle Sam involves the US Department of Health and Human Services’ push to collect and store all Patient data. To learn more about this intrusive practice, visit http://gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-07-15/pdf/2011-17609.pdf.

The section entitled “Data Collection Under Risk Adjustment (§ 153.340),” reads as follows:

“HHS considered three possibilities for data collection: (1) A centralized approach in which issuers submit raw claims data sets to HHS; (2) an intermediate State-level approach in which issuers submit raw claims data sets to the State government, or the entity responsible for administering the risk adjustment process at the State level; and (3) a distributed approach in which each issuer must reformat its own data to map correctly to the risk assessment database and then pass on self-determined individual risk scores and plan averages to the entity responsible for assessing risk adjustment charges and payments.”

My friends, this approach to Health Care reform is a slippery slope that will likely result in data breaches, loss of Patient confidentiality, Medical decisions made by non-medical individuals/entities, and a general loss of privacy (not to mention liberty).

The warehousing of Patient data by the US Government is wrong on so many levels. At the core of my objection is the fact that the sacred Patient-Doctor bond flies out the window with this practice. In the broader sense, my gut feeling indicates that anything and everything that can go wrong will go wrong when you mix sensitive Patient information with the bureaucratic quagmire known as Washington, DC.

For the record, here is the Government-Speak answer I received when I inquired about this matter: “This is a good thing for Americans. The possibility that Patient information may be lost here or there is acceptable collateral damage.”

Help me fight this matter. Our combined determination to shine a light on this “Big Brother” practice will generate the necessary force to stop such efforts that threaten the founding principles of our Nation.

United We Stand: Let's Heal America!


Sincerely,

Marion D. Thorpe, Jr. MD MPH

Chief Medical Officer (former)
Agency for Health Care Administration
State of Florida