Free Republic

On the local level, we have COVID passport laws being enacted. It's coming to Washington, DC, this week. It's already in effect in New York City. You cannot go to most public places unless you present your papers. It's insanity. It's un-American. I can see this stuff being enacted in Germany, France, and Australia—but not here. "Where are your papers?" is something I'd never thought I would hear or present if I wanted to eat a hamburger. If COVID was some aerosolized super-Ebola with a 50-80 percent mortality rate, I could understand the lockdown regime. If it were like the...

Data has been shared with third parties without people having the option to opt out or without even being made aware that this is happening”.. As if the liberty erasing connotations of vaccine passports were not enough on their own, it has been revealed that the Scottish government has allowed data from the scheme to be shared with private companies including Amazon. The Daily Record reports, “We have learned the NHS mobile phone app which presents the personal medical information in the form of a QR Code shares data with companies including Amazon, Microsoft, ServiceNow, Royal Mail and an AI...

A bill authored by two GOP lawmakers would require sealed envelopes — not postcards sometimes used by health departments, schools or medical providers — to send out vaccine information. "Imagine you receive a postcard, or a flyer open to the public, that discusses a need for a specific prescription or appointment with a specialist. These types of postcards exist for vaccine status," said the bill’s author, Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, as she testified Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Legal Review and Consumer Protection. While the bill is aimed at information delivered by mail that could disclose...

The world-renown MD Anderson Cancer Center has announced a workforce reduction by 1,000, the CEO of the center said on Thursday. The cancer hospital has had $110 million in operating losses from September through November this year, reported the Houston Chronicle. [Snip] The local publication reported that the financial problems began in the spring when the hospital implemented a new electronic medical-record system. Doctors and staff members at the center spent a great deal of time getting up to speed in using the program and that took time away from their patients.

When a dolphin died in New Jersey's South River last year, Carly Sitrin wanted to know what killed it. So she filed a public record request to the NJ Department of Agriculture in order to get the necropsy results. The DOA finally responded last week with the weird decision to deny the release of the record on grounds of medical privacy. The response reads in part: "We are in receipt of your request for information (#W101407) under the auspices of the State’s Open Public Records Act (O.P.R.A.). Specifically, you requested any and all reports associated with the necropsy of the...

May 16, 2012 Obamacare's Patient-Dumping, Privacy-Meddling Scheme Michelle Malkin The stench of Chicago cronyism over the White House just got fouler. Inhale this: A shadowy $10 billion Obamacare agency with zero oversight just awarded first lady Michelle Obama's pet patient-dumping scheme at the University of Chicago Medical Center a $5.9 million taxpayer-funded grant. It will enable Mrs. Obama's cronies to build a government-sponsored electronic medical record-sharing system. The Chicago program, known as the Urban Health Initiative, is run by one of President Obama's closest golfing buddies, scandal magnet Eric Whitaker, who has been entangled with Illinois corruption celebrities Rod Blagojevich...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Until recently, medical files belonging to nearly 300,000 Californians sat unsecured on the Internet for the entire world to see. There were insurance forms, Social Security numbers and doctors' notes. Among the files were summaries that spelled out, in painstaking detail, a trucker's crushed fingers, a maintenance worker's broken ribs and one man's bout with sexual dysfunction. At a time of mounting computer hacking threats, the incident offers an alarming glimpse at privacy risks as the nation moves steadily into an era in which every American's sensitive medical information will be digitized.

>As I have read through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA, aka ObamaCare), I have been repeatedly struck by the disregard the law has for patient privacy. Time and time again, the PPACA authorizes the federal government to obtain information about patients directly from their health care providers. A particularly vivid example is Section 4302, "Understanding Health Disparities: Data Collection and Analysis." Section 4302 literally opens up almost every medical record in this country for government review and data collection. Let's go through the section with an eye towards patient privacy issues: (1) IN GENERAL- The...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The apparently endless market for images of Marilyn Monroe now extends to inside the bombshell's body. A set of three Monroe Chest X-rays from a 1954 hospital visit sold Sunday for $45,000 at the Hollywood Legends auction at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Sexually transmitted diseases is a topic that many people don't like to talk about, especially with teenagers. But, the director of the regional health department in New London is calling for the mandatory testing of teenagers from eighth-grade through 12th-grade students in New London and Groton. The hope is that other shoreline communities will follow suit and begin testing their teenagers as well. Vanessa Reed works for the school-based health clinic that operates inside New London High School. She said there's an epidemic of STDs infecting Connecticut teenagers, particularly teenage girls, and it's no surprise that...

The confidential medical records of patients treated at one of Britain’s top private hospitals have been illegally sold to undercover investigators. Hundreds of files containing intimate details of patients’ conditions, home addresses and dates of birth are being offered for as little as £4 each. The files were sold by two men who claimed to have gained access to the information from IT companies in India, where thousands of British medical records are sent every year to be computerised. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221186/Private-medical-records-sale-Harley-Street-clinic-patients-files-outsourced-input--end-black-market.html#ixzz0YehQwyeQ

Lost among the language of Obama's "Economic Stimulus Package," aka "Welfare for Lobbyists," is a little-discussed provision to demand that every American submit to a government program for electronic medical records without a choice to opt out. The fact that this kicks HIPPA to the curb, not to mention all other right-to-privacy laws, including those under the FOIA, is bad enough. Having your medical records sold by GOOGLE to its advertisers makes this provision unconscionable. But, WAIT! There's more!" Towards the end of the article is this nugget:The Citizens' Council on Health Care has worked to publicize the issue in...

A little-discussed provision in President Obama's economic stimulus plan would demand that every American submit to a government program for electronic medical records without a choice to opt out, and it has privacy advocates more than a little alarmed. Patients might be alarmed, too, privacy advocates said, if they realized information such as documentation on abortions, mental health problems, impotence, being labeled as a non-compliant patient, lawsuits against doctors and sexual problems could be shared electronically with, perhaps, millions of people.

MIAMI, June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Roy Black, Rush Limbaugh's attorney, issued the following statement today in response to several inquiries by the media: While going through routine Customs inspection of luggage at Palm Beach International Airport upon his return from an international trip, Rush Limbaugh was detained by customs agents after they noticed a non-narcotic prescription drug, which had been prescribed by Mr. Limbaugh's treating physician but labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes. After a brief interview, Mr. Limbaugh was permitted to continue on his journey.

State's top court to weigh privacy right, liability for harm - The California Supreme Court will sift through the ruins of the marriage of an AIDS-infected couple today to decide what information partners must tell one another about past high-risk sexual activity. At a hearing in Los Angeles, the court will look into the legal consequences of a woman's claim that her husband -- a healthy person, by all outward appearances and his own assurances -- infected her with HIV. Her lawsuit, in which she is seeking damages, raised issues that require the justices to weigh health concerns against the...

Washington, May 11 - Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18), along with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (RI-1), unveiled H.R. 2234, the 21st Century Health Information Act, a bi-partisan bill which transforms healthcare by putting new information technology into the hands of doctors. “As healthcare costs continue to rise at double digit rates each year, we must to change our approach,” Congressman Tim Murphy said. “The 21st Century Health Information Act gives doctors the tools they need to confidentially coordinate and communicate accurate healthcare records on their patients. It will save thousands of lives and billions of dollars by reducing medical errors, eliminate duplicate...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The Florida Supreme Court says it won't consider an appeal from conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh. Today's four-to-three order didn't explain the court's reasoning. Limbaugh's attorney argues that an appeals court misconstrued Florida law when it ruled prosecutors could review the records. Prosecutors seized Limbaugh's medical records in 2003 for an investigation into whether he illegally purchased prescription painkillers. Limbaugh hasn't been charged with any crime. He lost at the appellate court level and wanted the Florida Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that would open his medical records and possibly allow prosecutors to build a case...

WEST PALM BEACH — A highly confidential list of the names and addresses of 4,500 Palm Beach County residents with AIDS and 2,000 others who are HIV positive was e-mailed Thursday to more than 800 county health department employees. Health department statistician John W. "Jack" Nolan, who compiles data on HIV/AIDS cases for the county, sent the e-mail containing his monthly cumulative statistics report and inadvertently attached a file with the identities and addresses of AIDS patients and others who have tested HIV positive. Health department spokesman Tim O'Connor confirmed the incident. Nolan, a veteran health department employee, called in...

WEST PALM BEACH -- The prosecutor investigating whether Rush Limbaugh illegally purchased prescription painkillers told the Florida Supreme Court on Monday that investigators should be allowed to review the conservative radio commentator's medical records. Assistant State Attorney James Martz said Limbaugh's argument that he should have been notified before the records were seized by investigators is equivalent to saying ``that law enforcement is never to be trusted.'' ``Then search warrants should never be issued and law enforcement should never be permitted to investigate criminal activity for fear that they will abuse the power granted,'' Martz wrote in a brief filed...

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Seizure of medical records upheld in Limbaugh casePublished October 7, 2004 WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Rush Limbaugh's medical records were properly seized by investigators seeking information on reported illegal drug use, an appeals court ruled yesterday.     State investigators had raided the offices of Mr. Limbaugh's doctors seeking information on whether the conservative radio commentator illegally tried to buy prescription painkillers. Mr. Limbaugh, 53, has not been charged with a crime and the investigation had been at a standstill pending a decision on the medical records.     "We hold that the constitutional right of privacy...