Guess What's for Sale Now? Your Medical Records
OK. So we're used to companies we've bought from online selling what we buy, how much we spent and whether we return for more. But guess what else now has a price on it? Your medical data . With all the hoopla over HIPAA (you know, the mountain of forms you have to fill out and sign at the doctor's office after the new healthcare law), you'd think it'd be illegal. But it's not. According to a story at smartplanet.com, "States ranging from Washington to New York are selling compiled records that can be used to link individuals to medical conditions. As records become digitized and hacking becomes more sophisticated, the risk to patient privacy rises." In Washington state alone, a database of 650,000 patients and their hospitalizations now are for sale to researchers, companies and the general public. That means if you hurt your knee and must be hospitalized, you're likely to hear from knee and hip replacement device makers, home repair ou...