What Epic Systems REALLY Does: Spy on You!

If you're not living in a cave, you know that ObozoCare is a gold-mine for IT systems providers, especially if they have current installations in hospitals and clinics.  You also know that people who know what the system-requirements are going to be will do very well, indeed, when the bids are let.

So yah, Epic Systems had a large installed base in health-care institutions, and yah, their CEO was in Obozo's office quite a few times before the "law of the land" was cast in stone.

Humdrum, right?  Crony capitalism is not new.

Well, some of this crony-ism IS new, and you won't like it.

A very broad government biosurveillance plan that makes your health records a matter of “national security” showed up on my radar today. It opens the door leading to the government having near-real-time access to monitor your health....the reason we might not have heard much about this “sneaky biosurveillance plan that will track American’s health records” is because the 50-page departmental draft (pdf) states, “Do not cite or quote.”

Hmmmm.

It’s regarded as national security, meaning in the same way NSA surveillance was a secret until the Snowden leaks, you won’t even know how your health is being spied upon and shared with others. The 2015-2018 National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) (pdf) will keep track of and share information about not just sick people and sick animals, but even sick plants.

“The information collected by the government will be ‘all-encompassing’ and include ‘what our health status is, whether we exercise, how often we get a cold, or what kind of medications we’re taking,” according to the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF).

And how do you s'pose it will be tracked?  Epic Systems' software.

“Officials want a ‘near-real-time’ reporting requirement for electronic data systems. What is a ‘health threat’ or ‘incident’ that could jeopardize our ‘national health security?’ The Strategy says these could include terrorist activities, antibiotic resistance, climate change or subjects surrounding the economic environment. In other words, anything and everything could become a health threat by the government’s standards.”

So.  What, exactly, will be tracked by the Ruling Class?

...The draft proposal (pdf) claims NHSS will create “health situational awareness” made up from “many types of health-related and non-health-related data.” A graphic illustration of inputs to health situational awareness includes: non-health sources like informatics, supply chain, energy, environment, event driven, media, social determinants, transportation services, active intelligence and veterinary. Examples of health-related sources include: morbidity and mortality, lab/diagnostics, social service utilization, disease prevalence, health service utilization, public health investigation and response asset data. All of the above are merely part of the big picture, or “examples” of what data feeds into the “biosurveillance” portion of public health and medical situational awareness.

And what does the Ruling Class call this?

...Brase warns that the “government’s biosurveillance plan is much more intrusive than the data collection currently being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” It “talks about the need for the ‘examination of data from electronic medical records’ and calls for ‘cooperation among federal and non-federal stakeholders, including the scientific community and public and private healthcare providers ... to achieve an efficient and reliable surveillance system.”

But the (R) Party doesn't want to repeal ObozoCare.  They want to "fix" it, instead.

You can bet that the 'efficient and reliable surveillance system' will not be "fixed.', folks.