Tested positive for coronavirus? Health workers may share your address with police

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

I can't even begin to understand how this is HIPPA compliant.

What is Protected Health Information?
Protected health information (PHI) is any demographic information that can be used to identify a patient or client of a HIPAA-beholden entity. Common examples of PHI include names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, medical records, financial information, and full facial photos to name a few.

Police say the information helps first responders stay safe. But some privacy advocates and public health experts are raising concerns.

April 8, 2020, 2:01 AM PDT
By April Glaser and Jon Schuppe
In a growing number of cities and states, local governments are collecting the addresses of people who test positive for the coronavirus and sharing the lists with police and first responders.
Law enforcement officials say this information sharing — which is underway in Massachusetts, Alabama and Florida, and in select areas of North Carolina — will help keep officers and EMTs safe as they respond to calls at the homes of people who have been infected. The first responders can take additional precautions in those cases to avoid being exposed to the virus, state health departments and local police officials say.

But some public health experts and privacy advocates have raised concerns about police departments maintaining a list of addresses of confirmed coronavirus cases. They say that it could make people reluctant to seek medical care or get tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, because of a fear of profiling by law enforcement.
"With any infectious disease, there's going to be stigma and discrimination about who has it," Robert Greenwald, a professor and the director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School, said. "If you're in a situation now where the word starts to get out that if you get screened then your address goes on a list that goes to first responders, it discourages screening for people who don't want to be on this list."

Continued here:
Tested positive for coronavirus? Health workers may share your address with police

 

[TNHarley]

Its an "emergency"
Cant pick and choose when your govt abuses its power. You give them an inch and they take it all

 

[Dekster]

I can't even begin to understand how this is HIPPA compliant.

What is Protected Health Information?
Protected health information (PHI) is any demographic information that can be used to identify a patient or client of a HIPAA-beholden entity. Common examples of PHI include names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, medical records, financial information, and full facial photos to name a few.

Police say the information helps first responders stay safe. But some privacy advocates and public health experts are raising concerns.

April 8, 2020, 2:01 AM PDT
By April Glaser and Jon Schuppe
In a growing number of cities and states, local governments are collecting the addresses of people who test positive for the coronavirus and sharing the lists with police and first responders.
Law enforcement officials say this information sharing — which is underway in Massachusetts, Alabama and Florida, and in select areas of North Carolina — will help keep officers and EMTs safe as they respond to calls at the homes of people who have been infected. The first responders can take additional precautions in those cases to avoid being exposed to the virus, state health departments and local police officials say.

But some public health experts and privacy advocates have raised concerns about police departments maintaining a list of addresses of confirmed coronavirus cases. They say that it could make people reluctant to seek medical care or get tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, because of a fear of profiling by law enforcement.
"With any infectious disease, there's going to be stigma and discrimination about who has it," Robert Greenwald, a professor and the director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School, said. "If you're in a situation now where the word starts to get out that if you get screened then your address goes on a list that goes to first responders, it discourages screening for people who don't want to be on this list."

Continued here:
Tested positive for coronavirus? Health workers may share your address with police

HHS has declared a limited waiver to HIPPA due to national emergency

 

[MeBelle]

OP link states:

Scott Hovsepian, a police officer in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the president of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police, a union, said he appreciates the information sharing. "The health department is getting the information from health care providers, and what they're providing our chief dispatcher with is the addresses."

"All it says there is a confirmed case at this address — it's just the address," Hovsepian explained, adding that in some agencies those addresses are given to police officers during roll call as they go out to their shifts.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Relevant reading...

Kushner’s team seeks national coronavirus surveillance system

Critics worry about a Patriot Act for health care, raising concerns about patient privacy and civil liberties.

www.politico.com

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can accommodate them, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.

The proposed national network could help determine which areas of the country can safely relax social-distancing rules and which should remain vigilant. But it would also represent a significant expansion of government use of individual patient data, forcing a new reckoning over privacy limits amid a national crisis.

Health privacy laws already grant broad exceptions for national security purposes. But the prospect of compiling a national database of potentially sensitive health information has prompted concerns about its impact on civil liberties well after the coronavirus threat recedes, with some critics comparing it to the Patriot Act enacted after the 9/11 attacks.

 

[Gdjjr]

Welcome to Police State, USA, previously known in History as Nazi Germany.

 

[MindWars]

to bad u keep thinking ale jonnes is full of it lol we told u this chit was cominng years ago... and just recently but hey that heads up is such a g.d. conspiracy.
Sadly there is no need for lock downs