As one who has gone toe to toe with the medical industry, I have come to the conclusion that HIPPA was more about protecting physicians, hospitals and medical device companies that it was about protecting the patient.
> I have come to the conclusion that HIPPA was more about protecting physicians, hospitals and medical device companies that it was about protecting the patient.
HIPPA is one of the worst liberal schemes to ever be inflicted upon us.
Seven years ago my sister-in-law, a US citizen, went to Vietnam to visit relatives. Some months after returning, she injured herself and the site of the injury got worse and worse. Although she speaks and understand everyday conversational English, she did not understand what the doctor told he about her problem and asked me to find out for her (complete with signed permission paper.) It didn’t make any difference, I was not her husband or an immediate blood relative, so I was refused access to the information about her condition, even when she accompanied me to the doctor’s office.
It took me 4 months and a judge, before I found out that she had contracted TB from some coworker at work. She didn’t know what she had and HIPPA was in the way of finding out.
After determining her affliction she underwent the proper treatment (with a different doctor) and was declared TB free about 2 years later.