Residual Forces

From the INBOX, via CCHC

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LEGISLATIVE ALERT - ATTEMPT TO DELETE PATIENT CONSENT
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On Monday morning, Rep. Thissen will bring up his ONLINE MEDICAL
RECORDS bill (HF 1726).

MONDAY, March 19, 2007
8:00 AM
Room: 5 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Paul Thissen
Agenda: HF1726 (Thissen) Health Records Act adopted
HF1041 (Abeler) Controlled substances prescription electronic reporting
system established. [This isn't good either!!!]
[...]

The Minnesota Department of Health has informed me that they
are working on an amendment that will DELETE Rep. Abeler’s 3/15
patient consent amendment and ADD an opt-out dissent option.

In other words, as I warned a day ago, your personal and medical
data can be transferred online to a central registry without your
consent. Then if and when you find out about it and what it means,
you will have to take measures to have the data removed (which
will still behind data documenting your choice to opt-out), and to
make sure that every clinic, doctor, hospital or nursing facility
doesn’t put it back on.

Here’s what this opt-out means:

1) If enacted as law, this law will set a precedent that says patient
data can be moved and placed online without the consent or direct
knowledge of the patient. This will only be the FIRST bill of its kind.

2) The burden will always be on you to figure out what’s going on
with your personal information, to find out how to stop it, and to
take action.

3) The health department thinks that your private data is their public
data…or more accurately, they are trying to make it legally theirs.
Their initial bill kept you completely out of the picture. This attempt to
give you an opt-out still keeps them in control and you secondary in
the decision.

4) For the sake of “public health” you will have no right to keep your
private data to yourself…or private.

ACT NOW:

EMAIL:
rep.paul.thissen@house.mn, rep.patti.fritz@house.mn, rep.laura.brod@house.mn, rep.jim.abeler@house.mn, rep.bruce.anderson@house.mn, rep.julie.bunn@house.mn, rep.tom.emmer@house.mn, rep.brad.finstad@house.mn, rep.steve.gottwalt@house.mn, rep.rod.hamilton@house.mn, rep.thomas.huntley@house.mn, rep.tina.liebling@house.mn, rep.diane.loeffler@house.mn, rep.erin.murphy@house.mn, rep.erin.murphy@house.mn, rep.kim.norton@house.mn, rep.maryellen.otremba@house.mn, rep.maria.ruud@house.mn, rep.cy.thao@house.mn, rep.ken.tschumper@house.mn, rep.neva.walker@house.mn