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Does outsourcing threaten privacy?; Carol Gaido-Schmidt; Beaver County Times; November 2, 2010.
In previous letters, Mrs. Gaido-Schmidt lobbied for more taxes on “the rich”, thought it was great that Rochester got state taxpayer dollars to upgrade its high school football field, complained there was “Not a lack of housing, but an excess,” promoted a “growth model” for K-12 education, and told us the “Source of education problems is complex.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I was very saddened to learn of Heritage Valley’s plan to outsource medical transcription to a foreign company.”
[RWC] Two other of today’s letters expressed the same privacy concerns as this letter. I believe Mrs. Gaido-Schmidt meant “offshoring,” not “outsourcing.” Outsourcing is when a business contracts with another business to perform some functions. For example, a business may contract with a janitorial business for cleaning services instead of doing the cleaning with its own employees.
“I have serious concerns about the security of the protected health care information involved.
“In the United States we have the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and other laws that govern medical records. These laws can be unenforceable overseas.
“I understand cost containment and hospital financial struggles. I have worked for hospitals for most of my adult life.
“Still, to take this kind of risk with sensitive personal information is frightening. It is difficult enough to protect information in our own country, but in a foreign land that lacks the kind of legal protections we have here?
“I feel very uncomfortable about it, and as a person who has used Heritage Valley for my health care needs and my family’s, I am hoping that the administration will give serious thought to the risk that is involved and reconsider this plan before it is too late.”
[RWC] To have any credibility on the privacy issue, Mrs. Gaido-Schmidt and like-minded individuals need to convince us they want to see income taxes eliminated and they oppose government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare like Obamacare. Why? What greater invasion of privacy is there than the financial “full body cavity search” we go through every year when we must detail every aspect of our finances for multiple levels of government (income taxes, property taxes, etc.)? Perhaps the only greater invasion of privacy may be the access to our healthcare records required by socialized healthcare programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, SCHIP, et cetera.
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