Hello, Big Government; Goodbye, Patient Privacy
Citizens' Council on Health Care
National Physician ID Card Threatens Patient Privacy
(St. Paul, Minnesota) – A new national health care identification system threatens the privacy of patients, and their access to health care, says Citizens' Council on Health Care (CCHC).
“May 23rd marked the opening day of 'The Enumerator,'”
says Twila Brase, president of CCHC. “This is not the name of a
new sci-fi movie. It's the name of the latest initiative to advance Big
Government health care.”
Yesterday,
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began accepting
applications for national identification numbers for physicians,
dentists, pharmacists, and health care organizations, such as
hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies and group practices. These health
care providers must apply to “the Enumerator” for a National Provider
ID (NPI) if they transmit health information electronically. All health plans, except the smallest, must use the NPI by May 23, 2007.
“In the
age of computers and health care cost containment, a single
identification number allows all sorts of bureaucratic mischief,” says
Brase. “The NPI will enable
broad application of coercive strategies now starting to be used by
health plans and government agencies: physician profiling,
pay-for-performance programs, report cards on physician compliance with
HMO-developed and government-endorsed treatment protocols, and
financial penalties for non-compliance.”
“In other words, the NPI will facilitate off-site control of medical decisions,” she says.
In 1996,
Congress mandated the implementation of several national health care
identification systems, including the NPI, as part of the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The mandate is part of
the Administrative Simplification section of the law. Other
requirements include national transaction and code sets, the federal
privacy rule, national security standards, a national employer ID
number, a national payer ID, and a national patient identification
number.
“The
so-called federal 'privacy rule' allows widespread sharing of medical
record information without patient consent. Once the identification
numbers are in place, profiling will become prolific, and patient
privacy will be gone,” Brase warns.
“A
national treatment surveillance system is in the works. Enumeration has
been sold as administrative simplification, but its primary purpose
will be ongoing disruption of the confidential patient-doctor
relationship,” she charges.
Citizens'
Council on Health Care is an independent, non-profit, free-market
health care policy organization located in St. Paul, Minnesota.
http://www.cchc-mn.org/
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