EMRs may be sold

Electronic medical records may be sold under provisions of the recent stimulus bill.

The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed on Tuesday allocated $19 billion to centrally link health data of all Americans by 2014 and created a “National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”

While the legislation forbids the sale of EMRs, it also permits exceptions for research, treatment of an individual or a decision by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Among the exceptions is if the exchange of data is for public health activities.

“The purpose of the exchange is for treatment of the individual, subject to any regulation that the secretary may promulgate to prevent protected health information from inappropriate access, use or disclosure,” states the legislation.

Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom, said digitalizing medical records makes it easier to be misused.

“Digital records without consent is a recipe for invasion of privacy,” Blevins told CNSNews.com. “Consent was gutted with HIPAA, but it is really hard to get out paper records. When they are made electronic, you can share data with a click of a mouse.”