The Bloated Carcass that is HIPAA

It has been said that an elephant is the result of a bureaucracy
trying to build a gnat...I know it has been said...because I just
coined it, though similar quotes are out there in the wild blue
yonder.

However humorous that may be, it is nonetheless true, that
we could save entire forests, hewn down to make paper, if
we could only muzzle the loquaciousness and verbosity of
congress people and lawmakers. At around 367 pages,
it is clear that the rambling preamble of the HIPAA Act,
is both tiresome and confusing to read, but has no real
purpose for being there, except perhaps as a means of
wasting ink. paper, and the time of some tired transcriptionist.

Why would that mean pages EVER be needed, to determine
any REASONABLE guidelines for medical privacy.

Another old saying is that the more complicated you make
a thing, the more apt it is to break. This is nowhere MORE true
than in the case of HIPAA, a piece of legislation that was
"BORN BROKEN".

As I have observed in a previous article, HIPAA serves to
defeat its own stated purpose. The loopholes and poorly
conceived verbage, act in a very real manner to defeat
any attempt at providing for reasonable and commonsense
protection to medical records against prying eyes with no
need to know, and frustrates the people who have EVERY
right to access these records. In other words, if you are the
spouse of a patient, it is far easier for someone who wants
to access their records for legitimate purposes.

The convoluted Act seems to be intentionally obtuse and
overly complicated, and I believe it is structured intentionally
to make certain classes of persons or entities, to access the
individually identifiable personal medical health information
for business reasons easy, and to and  concurrently, make
 the access by proper persons, unduly burdensome and
difficult, such that it is almost like having to do discovery
in a lawsuit, to access your OWN medical records, or
those of a spouse or relative.

This is a shame, and should NOT be allowed to continue.