Commentary: Paranoia over Privacy

Dr. Neubauer's experiences highlight some of the more disturbing aspects of our brave new world in which the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is an all-too-central part. The insight of a physician as patient is unique and often points out the unexpected consequences of strictly adhering to policies that have irreproachable objectives. Protecting patients' privacy has been fundamental to medicine's professional obligations since the time of Hippocrates. Although the Charter on Medical Professionalism reaffirms the importance of protecting privacy (1), it gives precedence to the principle of “primacy of patient welfare.”

The purpose of HIPAA is to protect the privacy of the patient, which certainly is threatened by the advent of health information databases containing personal information on virtually every citizen. However, the …