I appreciate that the government is trying to protect our privacy. This is scary because Medicare, the largest insurance company still uses social security numbers as the insurance ID.
I worked for a medical chart audit company that audited Medicare Advantage charts for chronic diseases and comorbidities. I worked from home and had access to various insurance companies' and medical providers' patient information. This included names, dates of birth, social security numbers, entire medical history, legal papers and anything else in a patient's chart.
I no longer work for this company because the auditing was able to be done from India over the internet for cheaper rates. What kind of laws does India have regarding the personal information of U. S. citizens and Medicare recipients? Will there be a ban on American Companies allowing access to foreign nations? This has already been going on for 3 years. I have written to my Congressmen and Senators about this privacy issue over a year ago. I had to sign many Privacy Protection documents but once the information is out on the internet, retracting it isn't easy, if at all possible. It really boils down to how secure the medical provider and insurance company servers are going to be. Will this new legislation require certain kinds of security software?
I hope the issue of foreign access will now be addressed in this legislation. I just hope it won't be too little, too late.