Will Obama care relax medical records?

[Irving]

So I was thinking the other day...

Remember just a few years ago how everyone was in a panic because they thought that employers were going to be able to access medical records, then not hire people due to pre-existing conditions?

Now that medical providers MUST take anyone and everyone, and companies will have a relatively fixed cost for providing health care because of that, do you think that this issue will die down because companies will no longer be interested in your medical history? OR do you think that publicizing medical records will just get wrapped up into the "progressive" changes that the health care system is currently going through?

Just curious what people were thinking about that.

[Hoosier]

Everything related to retention and release of medical records falls under HIPAA rules, which are quite strict:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_...untability_Act

[SA Friday]

So I was thinking the other day...

Remember just a few years ago how everyone was in a panic because they thought that employers were going to be able to access medical records, then not hire people due to pre-existing conditions?

Now that medical providers MUST take anyone and everyone, and companies will have a relatively fixed cost for providing health care because of that, do you think that this issue will die down because companies will no longer be interested in your medical history? OR do you think that publicizing medical records will just get wrapped up into the "progressive" changes that the health care system is currently going through?

Just curious what people were thinking about that.

I doubt it. HIPPA is still a law, and I haven't seen or heard of anything in the bill that would circumvent it. I must admit though, I haven't dug into it deeply.

[Irving]

Hoosier: That doesn't answer my question about what you think will happen though. Everything is "quite strict" until former lobbyists become politicians and then you have the fox guarding the hen house.

[cmailliard]

HIPPA prevents anyone except the patient or those authorized by the patient from looking at your medical records. It even goes so far that in EMS if a picture is taken of an accident scene anything in the picture must be able to be traced back to the patient, such as license plate.

If an employer must insure everyone with somewhat of a fixed cost why should their medical history matter, so why would the employer need to look.

I don't think HIPPA will change any time soon. It still comes down to privacy, if you live in a small town where everyone knows everyone and your boss finds out you have HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, or whatever, there is nothing stopping them from telling anyone at Sunday breakfast at the coffee shop. This is the reason for HIPPA and why it will not go away.