Medicare Centralized Database — Or is Big Brother watching you?

Does anyone actually realize what’s happening here?

Basically, they've forced this system into primary care offices—with plans to roll it out to dentists and OB-GYNs too—that blasts all your private medical data across the internet (???) everywhere. It’s totally against several US Federal Laws. Various admins can just sit there and read through your entire health history.

Just imagine the interest groups—banks, insurance companies, you name it—once they get their hands on that info... sounds great, doesn't it?

Maybe ask your doctor if they're uploading your data to the cloud... and if they are, sign a formal request or waiver telling them to stop. Because tomorrow, someone might try to blackmail you over something in your file, or you won't qualify for a loan because you're "high risk," or your insurance premiums will skyrocket... or maybe they'll find out about an abortion you had, or some other sensitive stuff, and use it against you. Not even mentioning things like HIV/AIDS or STDs...

Now, Big Brother can see everything about you with just a mouse click. The funniest part, I guess, is that the American public doesn't seem to get it or care. Patient advocacy groups stay quiet, while the people who have raked in millions from all this "digital transformation" over the years just keep covering it up. And then you have people in Europe bragging about it like it's some amazing American export.

If it weren't so pathetic, I'd probably laugh.

Every single family doctor under Medicare is required to do this.
And that bolded part? Absolutely impossible.
There was even a hard deadline—I think it was May 1st, 2008, though they pushed it back later—by which every clinic had to be integrated into the system, otherwise they’d face sanctions like losing 10% of their capitation fees.☕

An obligation forced on us against US Federal Law isn't really an obligation at all, I guess. People breaking the law should be held accountable by patients.
Just because the state forces something through without updating existing laws... doesn't mean people have to support that kind of behavior.

In a democratic society, anyone can make a statement and put their name on it. That's clearly stated in two different laws.

Under current US Federal Law (like the Medical Practice Act, privacy laws, data protection, healthcare regulations...), this kind of thing just isn't allowed.

I gave my own doctor a statement like that, and she isn't entering my info into the computer system where it gets sent off. Apparently, she hasn't heard back from the higher-ups about it yet.

Austin Wright93 said:An obligation forced on us against US Federal Law isn't really an obligation at all, I guess. People breaking the law should be held accountable by patients.
Just because the state forces something through without updating existing laws... doesn't mean people have to support that kind of behavior.

In a democratic society, anyone can make a statement and put their name on it. That's clearly stated in two different laws.

Under current US Federal Law (like the Medical Practice Act, privacy laws, data protection, healthcare regulations...), this kind of thing just isn't allowed.

I gave my own doctor a statement like that, and she isn't entering my info into the computer system where it gets sent off. Apparently, she hasn't heard back from the higher-ups about it yet.

Imagine if someone doused you in gasoline and set you on fire; there ought to be some dental record so your family could identify you. But since you see a needle in a haystack, you've probably switched through fifty different dentists already. Our filing system is a total mess, so your relatives wouldn't even recognize you. This way, you have nothing. It’s not a perfect system, but there needs to be some order. You shouldn't just hide behind laws, because clearly, the definition of democracy and the actual practice of democracy are two different worlds.