Surveillance in doctors' exam rooms mandated, report says

A new book will be released soon on the federal government's HIPAA patient "privacy law" and the new online medical-records system mandated by the Obama administration, and the author says patients won't like what they learn.

The report by Twila Brase, a registered nurse and president of the Citizens' Council for Health Freedom, is titled "Big Brother in the Exam Room: The Dangerous Truth about Electronic Health Records."

Among the things patients will learn is that Congress "forced doctors to install surveillance in the exam room."

And they will find out patient treatment decisions are controlled and tracked by the EHR, electronic health records.

"If you’ve ever been in the doctor's office and the clinician isn't looking you in the eye – but at a computer screen instead – you know how electronic health records have impacted the medical industry," she explained.

"There are serious dangers lurking behind the government’s $30 billion electronic health record experiment," Brase wrote. "This omnipresent technology turns doctors into data clerks and shifts attention from patients to paperwork – while health plans, government agencies and the health data industry profit. Patients who think the HIPAA 'privacy' rule protects the confidentiality of their medical information will be shocked to discover it makes their medical records an open book."

She has investigated how patient treatment decisions are controlled and tracked by the government-mandated EHR, and she offers steps to regain privacy and patient safety, urging Americans to act now.

Dan Bongino, New York Times bestselling author of "The Fight," endorsed the work.

"A must-read account of the collapse of health care freedom in the United States," he said. "'Big Brother in the Exam Room' is essential reading for every patient and doctor looking to fight back against the intrusive government health care behemoth."

The book is a guide to restoring health and integrity to medical care in the U.S., said Richard Sobel, visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute, Northwestern University.

"Consent is the essence of privacy and the patient-doctor relationship back to the Hippocratic Oath," Sobel said. "'Big Brother in the Exam Room' deserves careful consideration for its dissection of the deforming aspects of depriving individuals of their rights to medical privacy and consent."