| Stardog |
| (Member) |
| 09/08/04 09:57 PM |
 Re: Can the government view your med records
|
Quote:
If the original question is taken literally, the answer is YES of course they can, if they are related to your SSN (and if you have insurance or use Medicare or Medicaid, they are) then without a doubt they can see them with the press of a button.
Legally? I am not a lawyer and don't want to get into the semantics of the Patriot Act and what it gives the law the authority to do to us, but I'd wager a dollar to a doughnut that the federal government could justify any nightmarish violation of civil liberties it wanted to right now, if they called you a terrorist.
Well then, can doctors get access to your medical records? Is there a national database? I was really naive until a couple of years ago about this. I thought that there was a single file of my records that grew as I got older, which got copied and sent to each new PCP I went to when I moved. I was shocked to find that this was my responsibility, and that most doctors just made me fill out a survey about my past medical history instead of even asking me about my previous PCPs or records. And when they've tried to get them, since I didn't remember the names or addresses of a lot of my docs (I move a lot), they couldn't really do it with just my name.
Has this changed?
