It's amazing what you will find sometimes....
"Patients’ files left at public dump; 4 Mass. hospitals investigating" by Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff | August 13, 2010
Four Massachusetts community hospitals are investigating how thousands of patient health records, some containing Social Security numbers and sensitive medical diagnoses, ended up in a pile at a public dump....
Related: State’s error unveiled Social Security numbers
We are supposed to trust these people to protect our privacy?
By law, medical records and documents containing personal identifying information must be disposed of in a way that protects privacy, and leaving them at a dump is probably illegal, privacy lawyers and hospital officials said. Violators face steep fines.
"Probably?"
A Globe photographer discovered the records July 26 when he was dumping his trash at the Georgetown Transfer Station. When he got out of his car, he said, he saw a huge pile of paper about 20 feet wide by 20 feet long. Upset that the paper wasn’t being recycled, he looked more closely....
And look, it turned into a front-page piece of "investigative" journalism.
The episode highlights in dramatic fashion how hard it can be for hospitals to safeguard patient information, given the large number of doctors, insurance companies, medical billing firms, and contractors who have access to personal data in the normal course of business....
And now Obamacare is going to computerize everything?
--more--"
Maybe they should call in the feds:
"Medicare detectives lag on reporting" by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press | August 9, 2010
WASHINGTON — The exact average to refer fraud cases to law enforcement was 178 days. In that time frame, many cases can go cold, making it difficult to catch perpetrators, much less recover money for taxpayers....
Out of $835 million in questionable Medicare payments identified by private contractors in 2007, the government was able to recover only about $55 million, or about 7 percent, the report found....
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And that is chump change compared to this:
"the cases represent only a fraction of the estimated $60 billion to $90 billion in Medicare fraud absorbed by taxpayers each year"
Are you sure you want national health care from this government, America?
What do you think the TAX is FOR?
Related: No Choice With Obamacare
Not now.
