So the question does arise as the news arrives that Wal-Mart and five other large companies are collaborating on the development of "Web-based employee personal health records": how can the employees know their records will be secure and private?

According to the Government Computer News (CGN.com) story referenced above:


Individuals will be able to maintain comprehensive and up-to-date health histories of themselves and their families, said J.D. Kleinke, CEO of the Omnimedix Institute, the nonprofit group in Portland Ore., that is developing the system.

Dossia gathers health information on behalf of the individual from various sources and stores it within secured databases. Dossia’s open architecture will support multiple personal health applications, which lets users organize and summarize their information in ways that are most useful to them.

Health records will be secure and private, accessible only by the individual or by others to whom they have granted permission. Records also will be portable, so individuals can use the records even if they change employers, health plans or doctors.

That’s all nifty and swell, but privacy rights advocates are a tad worried.

Or, as the article continues:


The Patient Privacy Rights Foundation in Austin, Texas, however, denounced the plan to store their employees’ records in a centralized data warehouse linking hospitals, doctors and pharmacies.

"This is a prescription for disaster. Will these companies guarantee that employees’ personal health information will never be used against them or disclosed without informed consent?" said Deborah Peel, founder and chairwoman of Patient Privacy Rights. . Wal-Mart Stores plans to apply market pressure and incentives to get hospitals and doctors on board and will insist that health care providers adopt electronic records and prescribing as a condition of future business, she said. . "Electronic health records are essentially a good idea. But American health consumers have said repeatedly that they do not want their employers or their insurers to have access to their records," Peel said.

I have to agree with Peel, who the article says, recommends that a "neutral third party, such as a health banking repository, should house patient data."

In other words, to have my employer store my health and medical records in a system that would allow that employer access to my record? IF I were an employee of one of the companies colloborating on Dossia, I sure would want to know who could access my files, when that person could see my files, why that person should see my files at all and how much power I have to give or take that power away.