Extortion threat to patients' records Clients not informed of India staff'

[RamboLiberal]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/02/MNGI75VIEB1.DTL

An Ohio company that outsources U.S. medical files to India, including patient records from several California hospitals, was the victim of an extortion attempt in October by its own workers in Bangalore, who threatened to reveal confidential materials unless they received a cash payoff.

The security breach was alarmingly similar to a threat received by UCSF Medical Center just three weeks earlier from a Pakistani woman who was transcribing the Bay Area hospital's files.

Yet Steven Mandell, head of Toledo's Heartland Information Services, failed to mention the extortion incident when he was summoned last month by anxious California lawmakers to testify on steps his industry is taking to safeguard outsourced information.

"He lied to us," said an angry state Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, who chaired the March 9 privacy hearing in Sacramento. "He could have said they had a situation just a few months earlier, and he didn't."

[Warpy]

1. India has no confidentiality laws regarding medical records

I've been warning people about this for months. The extortion attempt is probably a pretty limited thing, but just think about having your records completely open to any insurance company out there that wants to deny you coverage in the future. They are in the business to make money, not care for your health or insure your life. Having your records transcribed and stored in India will make it easier for them to investigate and determine whether or not you might have any chronic illness or bad habits that could cost them money.

This is just another disaster waiting to happen, another way for a truly evil system to jump up and bite the American public.

[Mountainman]

2. OK all you friends of outsourcing. Feel better now?

The mounting evidence of the risks to Americans because of outsourcing is alarming.

Yet I'm sure there are those here who will tell us not to worry, there is nothing you can do and it is not the fault of those with the outsourced jobs, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla, so just shine it on.

No one gives a damn about how this effects us.