IP: HOW'S YOUR CREDIT? HOW'S YOUR HEALTH?

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

HOW'S YOUR CREDIT?  HOW'S YOUR HEALTH?
In the old days (a few years ago), when you tried to cash a check at a
retail store your name would be checked against a database of bad check
writers, but now that database may reveal your whole credit history, your
tendency to write a lot of checks in a very short time, and your tendency
to write checks late at night.  "Writing a check is considered a short-term
loan and entitles us to look at credit reports," says a supervisor in the
check authorization department of Federated Department Stores, Inc., one of
many retailers concerned about the $10.2 billion of bad checks returned to
U.S. banks each year.  (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 4 Oct 95 F1)   Many
companies also feel they have a right to know about your health.  There is
no federal law that protects the confidentiality of medical records, and
25% of people surveyed in a 1993 Louis Harris poll thought their own
medical information had been improperly disclosed.  Embarrassed by the
disclosure that patient psychiatric notes were kept in a computerized
database widely available to administrative staff, the Harvard Community
Health Plan has implemented a privacy-sensitive audit trail that will
enable primary care physicians to identify all persons who pull up patient
records, and discipline or fire individuals who examine records without a
valid reason. (Harvard Health Letter 20:11 Sep 95)