Who Is Responsible For Patient’s Privacy?
Pravin Kothari
Here is an interesting article from The Christian Science Monitor examining 5 very important paragraphs in the new Senate healthcare bill. The proposed bill allows the government to access all electronic medical records in the name of research without patient’s consent. One of the article’s conclusions is that “Congress needs to pass a strong, ethical patient consent law that ensures patients have control over the flow of their personal health information.” Without such mandatory protection from the government, the responsibility of privacy protection will then reside with the care delivery organizations. Whether required by law or not, “trust is a must for ensuring quality healthcare” as stated in the article. Care delivery organizations must stand on the side of their patients and put in the necessary privacy protection measures. On the flip side, if the care delivery organizations are not required to protect patient’s privacy, is that responsibility now passed onto the Government as the data aggregator, or is it passed on to any research institution who access that database? Somebody needs to take the responsibility before all our beloved public official’s medical records get posted on the Internet for everyone to see 
