What You and George Clooney May Have in Common

Updated 7/27/08

When George Clooney and his girlfriend, Sarah Larson, had a motorcycle accident last September, they experienced something that Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Chief Medical Editor for NBC News, says happens to patients at medical facilities across this country on a regular basis. In spite of protections guaranteed in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws enacted by Congress in 2003, several employees of Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, N.J., viewed the couple’s medical records without authorization.

Though the employees were suspended without pay for an entire month, and Clooney pleaded for leniency in the case because no harm was done, everyone whose privacy is invaded in a similar manner is not that lucky. Take the case of a young woman falsely accused of being a hypochondriac by several physicians.

Medical personnel with an axe to grind attempted to force her into psychiatric care. They also tried to terminate her rights to care for her aging parents. After a thorough investigation, which involved more unauthorized eyes prying into her records, and a series of appointments that just happened to have been scheduled at a medical center in a larger city prior to the investigation, she received the proper diagnoses from several specialists. The offenders were punished.

What can we do about this abuse of our medical information? For an explanation of the HIPAA laws and tips on how to maintain your privacy, visit The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Another way to protect yourself is to fight for a proper diagnosis. If anyone reads your records after that, they will have accurate information. Make sure to challenge any professional who stereotypes you without performing a thorough examination and exhausting all possibilities.

In his latest book, How Doctors Think, medical researcher and journalist Dr. Jerome Groopman shares many case studies of patients who were misdiagnosed because of errors in their attending physician’s thinking. Dr. Groopman says doctors misdiagnose 15% to 25% of all patients, with more than 50% of those errors leading to harm or death. You can purchase a copy of How Doctors Think through the Health Policy section of the Life Empowerment Shop.

For help in finding a sympathetic medical professional, see Unmasking a Diagnosis. In addition to tips on finding professional services, the book features creative ways to pay for those services and other valuable information. To learn more or to buy a copy, available as a download for $3.95 and as a paperback for $7.95, click this link.