The rationale for this system is what?????

If it is to make citizen Jim Jones or Sally Johnson health records  
available to who ever needs them for your health care. If so you need  
them in a hurry so you can help save a life, and for that you need  
pretty open access.  Every doctor, every clinic and every hospital  
will have the capability to draw your records to their terminal so  
they can check your blood type, your history and so on. Any weak point  
opens the portal to Pandora's box. Even with FACTA and other laws, we  
still see doctors file in dumpsters.

Every nurse or file clerk will have access through their employer.   
Only one has to jump for the bribe that will be paid to gain access.   
The reaction will then be to make access extremely difficult.

The answer is not allowing the government into the equation. The  
answer is not to pool all the world's information in one pot.  It just  
becomes a World Trade Center high value target.  The greater the value  
to the criminal the higher the incursion rate will be.

I asked my son who is in his last year of Medical School why the death  
rate for infants is so high in America (We hear this all the time in  
the Health care debate.) versus other country's, which is the argument  
for different health care. He patiently explained, "In other  
countries, mothers with health problems may die long before the birth  
of the child due to lack of care. In the U.S. we treat that mother, we  
bring her to term and the baby might then die at birth. In the foreign  
country the baby was either aborted, miscarried or the mother died  
long before the statistics of live birth could be calculated.  They  
simply don't offer the heroic health care that we see everyday in the  
U.S..

For example, he cited John's Hopkins and said look at their statistics  
and you will see their death rate for cancer is much higher than some  
other hospitals in foreign countries.  But the cause for that, is that  
the most difficult problems seek out the best hospitals. Hopkins is  
constantly faced with the most difficult situations.  We will go there  
when our local Doctor says "There is nothing more we can do for you."   
But do we quit? No we move to a better hospital and we take the "no  
hope cancer" to the best centers.  In many cases they save us but the  
risk reward is far lower than those hospitals that just made the  
decision that "There is nothing we can do for you. Go home and die."

A hospital can have a 100% success rate if they just refuse to treat  
the life threatening cases.

Why our Press does not make that point, why our Congresspersons ignore  
that fact is purely political. Cancer is in my genetic material to a  
higher degree than most.  I have seen my mother, brother and sister  
die of it and another brother is fighting it now.  But when the local  
hospital said this is a difficult case and we do not have the  
facilities to beat it, my Mother went to the Cleveland Clinic, Terry  
went to Johns Hopkins and Diane went to M.D. Anderson. All had  
extensions placed on their lives well beyond what local care could  
provide. None had an issue with moving their records.  We are fixing a  
problem that simply does not exist and the risk side is too extreme  
and when people die due to the problems with the massive Cloud of  
information that may be difficult to access due to security or the  
system is down because it was hacked, the Press will fail to report  
it.  What has HIPAA done for us? Where is the good?  I don't see it  
and massively increasing its scope will not make it better.

Some Doctors see a side benefit of lower malpractice. They will not be  
forced to treat the difficult cases. If the government makes the  
diagnosis, then their risk is reduced and lower malpractice will  
result and people will not be allowed to sue the government. But first  
we nationalize the records. Ironic that records management was the  
first step in the process.  We're Number 1!

Hugh Smith
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(610)  756-4440

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