New IRS Rule Implicates Medical Privacy
Initial reactions to a decision last week by the Internal Revenue Service were overwhelmingly positive. But in the passing of a few days and with sober reflection, not everyone sees the new IRS policy as an unalloyed good thing. Deborah Peel, founder of Austin, Texas-based, Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, in an e-mail, said the group "deplores" the memorandum, decrying what she called "a dirty little secret"�that many hospitals sell patient data as a revenue source. "By 'giving' physicians electronic records that they can data-mine, hospitals have just massively enhanced the value of the data they sell to third parties. Physicians who accept EHRs that will be data-mined by hospitals are accepting a 'gift' that violates medical ethics and the laws of every state."
Some cautious of additions to IRS health IT ruling, Modern Healthcare Online, May 17, 2007.
