Here Comes HIPAA

The law that protect healthcare patient privacy is now in effect (Article). About a three years when this law was passed people predicted a surge of spending to get older systems complaint with the new law which prohibits any healthcare provider from divulging any of your personal information even as stuff as trivial as you name. Of coarse, these people failed to realize how cash strapped heath organizations really are or how much policy and behavioral change alone can reform a system, even without the fancy new information systems. Does this have implications for the hospital of the future, a place where at the touch of a button, your entire medical history is at their finger tips? Yes, but hopefully it will just make the system more secure thus keeping embarrassing stories about Richard Gere safely in the realm of urban legend.