I agree with you that the HIPAA security rule has been on balance a very good thing.
It’s the Hitech act and “meaningful use” which has created conversion chaos at lots of hospitals and clinics who had perfectly good security beforehand, turned the physical exam from a face to face conversation into a box checking, stare at the screen exercise, and thrown billions of dollars into the pockets of IT CEO’s and shareholders which could instead have been used for providing actual health care.
I mean, you look up “regulatory capture” and “rent seeking” and “crony capitalism” and you’ll see the logos of Epic, Athena, Cerner and the rest.
And when it’s all said and done, do you think that your hospital’s Epic system will be interoperable with the clinic’s Cerner system and your doctor’s Centricity system? Pathetic, pathetic.
