Did You Know Medical Records Are for Sale?

Here is a statistic that should make you cringe: The data-mining industry, which buys the information and resells it to medical companies, will top $10 billion in revenue by 2020, McKinsey estimates. This is according to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek.
Read the Full Report here.

This article talks primarily about data being shared by state health agencies and sold to private data-mining companies.

What I am concerned about is that there are some EMR companies that see ‘big money’ in data. We have seen the new healthcare IT buzz around ‘big data’. What do you think this is about?

Everyone from Free EMR companies to others that charge money is eyeing the model of being able to sell ‘de-identified’ data. Why else would even large companies like ADS which had no business in the healthcare world buy an EMR company?

My worry is about implications for healthcare providers and doctors. What is their liability when there is a breach that is outside of their control? Perhaps, nothing to fear from a legal perspective, (I’m not a lawyer and I have no idea), but what happens to the ‘trust’ between patient and provider in case of such a breach?

How will patients perceive you even though there may not be a straight connection between the provider and the breach?

Author: Chandresh Shah

Chandresh Shah specializes in Healthcare IT and Medical Billing. He knows the market inside out; what works, what doesn’t. He advises and works with small business owners. View all posts by Chandresh Shah