The Institute for Health Freedom (IHF) is warning the public that the economic stimulus bill mandates the federal government to plan for each American to use “an” electronic health record (EHR) by 2014 — without opt-out or patient-consent provisions. This is a very serious breach of privacy and one I would hope will be overturned with time. Seems as though the government decided to not come up with a comprehensive plan but instead made sure that no matter what it is everyone will have to be a part of it. This would open up your complete medical records to over 600,000 healthcare providers, payment processors, and government health agencies without your consent. And no, HIPAA will not protect you from this. This kind of pervasive access to anyone’s health records screams of privacy and security concerns.

See the full report at NetworkWorld.com.