If you have been to a new doctor recently, or even to an old doctor who you have not seen in a while, you most likely have been asked to fill out an information packet as part of the government Affordable Health Care Act. As of January 1, 2014 public and private health care providers are required to use a standard digital record keeping system. The questionnaire is so voluminous that many offices mail the forms to you so you can fill them out prior to coming for your appointment. It's not just a name and address form. You are required to provide a complete medical history, list all previous surgical procedures, detail all drugs, legal or not, you take and why, the medical problems of your ancestors and siblings and when and if they died and of what, list your employer and your spouse's employer, when you retired if you are, identify your emergency contacts including adult children and their contact information, reveal if you smoke or ever did, confess if you drink alcohol and how many ounces a week or day, report what you do for exercise, admit if you do not wear a seatbelt, report your race and ethnicity ( I thought that was not supposed to matter ), provide your address, home phone, cell phone, email address, share your social security number, and hand over your driver's license and insurance cards to be photocopied by the receptionist at the front desk.
Does anyone else worry about identity theft? According to a piece on ABC in May 2014, never share your social security number with anyone, even your physician's office (although how you avoid it if you have Medicare I do not know since the ID number and SS number are one and the same in most cases), do not communicate with your doctor's office via unencrypted email, and do not allow them to store your credit card information. Furthermore, do not allow them to use your DL number as an identifying number on a personal check.
Once created, your Electronic Medical Record should help y our physician track data over time. identify patients due for screenings and preventative visits, monitor how a patient measures up to certain parameters like vaccinations and blood pressure readings, and improve the overall care in a practice. But your EMR is not easily shared outside of a particular practice and most likely would have to be printed out and delivered by snail mail to other specialists. In fact, every time I see my primary care doctor a thick summary packet arrives in the mail a few days later recapping what I said, what he said, what I am to do, and when I am to come back. Do they think I can't remember? It seems a bit redundant and I don't see how this is moving us towards a paperless society. Should I save this medical screed, add it to the stack of "This Is Not A Bill"s and "Explanation of Benefits?" Dare I toss it in the garbage or shouldn't it be shredded? When the need arises will I really be able to find the lab work orders that they included for my check up next August 2015?
Scary!
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