National Security in Medical Records

Okay, since my last post I have been much more aware of what I am signing when I receive standard forms to sign.  I took my son to a prestigious, local hospital for an echo scan on his heart. When we checked in we handed over our information and we were asked to start the signing process on all the forms. The intake personnel woman said, "sign here on the electronic pad" without even asking us to read anything. I asked for the information and she gladly offered us the reading material. Under the Notice of Privacy Practices there were some new additions that I had never seen before. Here are the two additions which concerned me the most:
q  National Security and Intelligence Activities. We may release medical information about you to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities authorized by law.

q  Protective Services for the President and Others. We may disclose medical information about you to authorized federal officials so they may provide protection to the President, other authorized persons or foreign heads of state or conduct special investigations.

I also was not down to give away my son's info to research as stated blow.

q  Research. Under certain circumstances, we may use and disclose medical information about you for research purposes. We will almost always ask for your specific permission if the researcher will have access to your name, address or other information that reveals who you are, or will be involved in your care at the facility.

... they almost always ask for permission? That is not comforting. 
The woman at the desk assured me I could opt out of these if I called the number listed on the hard copy of the privacy policy I requested. So we went on with our visit.

When we got home I called the number given which rang the  privacy manager's voice-mail. About two hours later my call was returned and it was then that  I found out I could only opt out of the research portion. Turns out the other two were federally mandated and it does not mater if one signs or not... we have no privacy!  I was pissed and concerned at this point and was desperate for a loophole. Well, for now there is one... if you're rich! I found out through a friend in health care that you can be exempt from this if you pay cash at your visit and avoid credit cards and insurance claims. That to me is both very interesting and confusing. I wonder how long this option will last? 

Here's a little cherry on top for you... a couple days later I visited a client of mine who works for a big wig pharmaceutical company and she let me know some other disturbing information. I was told that whenever a doctor submits a prescription for a patient the pharmacy does not get it right away. First, the order goes to a government hub somewhere in D.C. This government hub stores data on every drug every person is on and for how long. This government hub can also reject a prescription without giving a reason and they answer to no one. My client does not know the purpose of this entity nor does any of her coworkers. This is not a secret government sect. They are open about their part in the chain of prescription filling.  However, they will not explain the detail of their operation to the providers, drug companies, insurance companies or patients. 

I am going to keep on writing about this decay of freedom until some force busts in my home and confiscates my computer and whatever else they find fascinating.  I am going to speak my truth until freedom of speech is completely ripped away, if that is the direction things are going. 

Is it?

So long Facebook

Well, I have deleted my Facebook account for good. After recently watching the documentary film "Terms and Conditions May Apply" I decided this would be the best choice for me. I would get off blogger.com and electronic mail too if my life allowed it. One day this will be my reality but for now I will do what I need to do. So anyway, this film reveals what a person is agreeing to when they click the "I agree" box at the bottom of the fifty page legal contract that is required before you can enjoy the perks of whatever social media or electronic network you are attempting to join. All that legal jargon that no body ever reads actually has some eye worthy information. Anyone who clicks "I agree" on Facebook specifically is agreeing to allow Facebook to sell and or give away any information or images you post to third parties. Some people would say, "Who cares! I am not hiding anything." I get it. I said that for a long time too. But what I didn't realize is that the government is using this in part of the Homeland Security Act as a means to monitor regular folks like you and me to scan for "potential terrorist" within the nation. The  fourth amendment that is meant to protect us against unreasonable searches and seizures and give people the right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects” is now being lost to what is known as the third party doctrine, the legal principle that, in effect, you lose your Fourth Amendment rights when you relinquish information to a third party. What?!!! 
There were cases where innocent people were searched and questioned just based off written words that were being surveillance on their social media. The interviews of these folks made me nervous. One person was a 12 year old kid who made a comment something like "the Taliban are crazy and have lots of weapons, Obama should be careful."  The kid was questioned at school by the CIA before his mom even arrived. His comment was one of concern not a threat but the computer registered those certain words of the presidents name combined with weapons and Taliban... and then bam! The poor kid is crapping his pants while being interrogated without his parents consent. Another guy was a writer who was doing research for a film he was working on and searched on line for "how to murder your wife" and "How to kill someone and not get caught" etc. He too got a knock on his door. The film compared this invasion of privacy to the movie "Minority Report" with Tom Cruz. The movie which is set in the future where officers go back in time to arrest people for crimes they will commit in the future before the crimes happen. Well no need for a time machine folks, we can just search you and possibly arrest you for just writing something on the internet that even looks suspicious. 
Hello? Is this thing on? Is anyone getting what I am saying here? 
Deleting my Facebook account is not going to fix the problem but boy do we have a problem! I am going to at least delete my accounts that slip in wording that takes away my fourth amendment and I encourage anyone who gives a shit about their freedom to do the same. 

Thank you and good night!

This is Syrious

What is the deal with Obama's position  to escalate the war in Syria?  This is the Nobel Peace Prize winning liberal were talking here? I thought the American people had to give permission to the president to start a war?  We have people starving to death all over the world and even in our own country but we are too broke to help them out. We sure have plenty of money to wipe out massive numbers of human life in Syria! Kill more people and go further into debt doing it... good idea. Those gullible Americans will work hard to pay it all back right? Obama is no idiot and I'm pretty sure that he knows what he's doing is wrong.  I think I am leaning towards the conspiracy theorists on this one when I say that Syria is a great diversion for Obama's failed 2nd term.
The diversion strategies of American presidents are getting out dated and predictable in my opinion and yet the American people still eat it up like apple pie. The Syria show is on every damn news channel and nobody has time anymore to worry about Obama Care or any other scandal that the Obama administration has been called out on. Is anyone else tired of this crap?

I am not affiliated with any political parties. I am just a patriotic American citizen who is so over the lies, manipulation and greed that the government seems to be runing off of. Why is the force that wants to fight, destroy and control seem to be the driving force in the world? How are the American people so easily distracted? The government is banking on our stupidity and laziness to pull off the crap that they do. Wake up sheeple, I mean people!  The worlds problems are not unfixable. Our strategies and approaches to our problems are the problem.

Getting old

So I am no spring chicken anymore and my neck and shoulder tend to go out from time to time. Well, this is one of those times...ouch!  I am going to get an acupuncture treatment tomorrow morning bright and early.  I don't have much to say and it huts to sit and write so I will end here.

People who care

After a long days work, I took my child to the park where he played tennis for an hour then hit the playground for a bit. I needed to pick up groceries to make dinner so we headed to the market. After we checked out and paid for our yummy food we ran into some kids that had been playing tennis with my son. My son started to play with his tennis mates and then an outreach representative from EQ America started on me about the next gay rights movement. You know, the ones that hover in the parking lot with the eye locking stare they lay upon you as you try to dart to the car? Before this woman could even finish her opening hook line I interrupted with "you guys already have my money and support."I was too tired to hear the whole low down on transgender rights. She followed up by saying "thanks" and went on to tell me about  the current bill they are opposing and warned me to read before I vote on this particular bill. I truly love the follow through these folks have on delivering their message. I agreed and began to counter educate by informing her of a bill I am working to support and get passed. It is 1038 the bill that will remove obstetrical supervision from midwives. This will allow Medi-Cal patients to receive care from midwives and even receive care from them outside the hospital setting (birth centers/ home births, etc). It also defines normal birth and the scope of a midwife's practice. I figured if I am going to stand here then we are going to talk about what I am caring about at the moment. This woman became so inspired and started telling me that her heart was in reproductive rights more than any cause. I told her about my involvement with the birth rally, my work as a birth professional and  as a human rights activist. We exchanged statistics and stories while jazzing each other up.  We also ended up giving our contacts to one another and she wants to help out with the organization I have been volunteering for, the organization that put on the national rally to improve birth. Before I knew it ten dollars were flying out of my wallet to support transgender rights. I remembered how hard it was to get people to listen and care about what is wrong and even how much harder it is to get them to do what it takes to make things right. She reminded me to stop and care by stopping to care herself. It's people like this woman who really restore my faith in humanity.

Just checking in

Today was a bit hectic. My co-worker who shares running the midwife's office where I work  was called to a birth and I had to cover for her. I had no childcare so I had to make the best of it with my son who is not quite five years old.  I also had to see one of the midwife's clients for a postpartum visit and get a weight on the three day old baby. Normally this is fun and cute but my son was pretty much over the whole day and beyond tired so he was bouncing around the house, touching everything, and getting a little too close to the newborn for the mother's comfort level. Expecting a four and a half year old to "sit nice and play quietly" all by themselves all day is just unrealistic and a promissory note for a resentment from both the child and the expecting party. For the most part though, my son was very helpful and made the best of it.
Anyway, I am just checking and now I must go to bed.

Nighty night,
K

Cyber Blogging

I have come to realize that I enjoy blogging. However, I am also a person who avoids staring into media screens as much as possible. I watch TV about once a month and answer emails about every three to four days. I find it challenging to remember to sit at the computer at least once a day to blog. I guess I am about to get over that!  I am going to see about getting an app for this blogger.com business.

English 101 meets again tonight for the 2nd time and I am looking forward to this. I have all my books and I am excited to learn.  It has been a while since I've been in school but I think I should do just fine.

Well, time to get ready for work!

Until next time,
Kimme

Labor Day- A Birth Revolution

A victory this Labor Day -250 plus people showed up to rally against the maternity crisis in the Untied States. For the last eight months I have been coordinating and planning this rally for the Los Angeles location. The National Rally to Improve Birth by improvingbirth.org took place in over 170 cities in all 50 states. Some advocates also participated from Japan, Canada and Brazil as well. This rally was not about natural birth vs medicated birth nor was it home birth vs hospital birth, but rather about women having maternity care that is based in evidence and being afforded true informed consent and refusal. The U.S.A. spends more money than any other country in the world on maternity care, yet we rank 45th in maternal safety. Yep... that's right! America shmerica! In the world of birth we are pathetic! It is safer to give birth in Croatia than it is here! Women in America just don't have real options. A woman who has had a surgical birth, 96% of the time, will not be supported or offered a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) for reasons that have nothing to do with the woman's chances for a successful VBAC. Instead it will be because of some strenuous guidelines that a doctor must follow which were put in place by insurance companies. The insurance companies have decided that a woman laboring who is attempting a VBAC must have their care provider on the labor and delivery floor the whole time she is admitted until the birth is completed. An obstetrician who has to pay $250,000.00 a year in malpractice insurance (common malpractice ins. fee)  needs to have many patients a month to pay that kind of cash. This makes it nearly impossible for any doctor to spend that kind of time with any patient. If they hung around for as long as some labors take they could never get to their 32 patients a day that are waiting back in the office. That is why women are being forced into repeat c-sections, not because it is best for the mother or baby... put that in your pipe and smoke it! Also, babies are being forced out by artificial inductions (starting labor manually with drugs) or cut out by c-section because the doctor thinks the baby will be to big to birth. Really? Did the doctor X-ray the woman's pelvis and measure the inlet and outlet opening? I doubt it! I attend home births regularly and we never tell women that their body won't be able to get the baby out and guess what? The baby always comes out just fine. I  have seen 8,9, even 10 pound babies birth like it was nothing and the mothers vajayjay wasn't even scratched! Then there is the whole "lets control the woman's every move" move. Get this,women can have child services called on them during their labor and delivery just for not signing consent forms that allow the hospital to do a c-section that may not even be needed. This kinds crap happens every day to women who may want anything outside the policy box. Grrrr!  My last pet peeve I will bitch about for the day is on informed consent. Example: Any given healthy woman can walk into the hospital while having a normal labor and the staff will get the woman set up for an IV (which she usually does not need) and start a line of pitocin (a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin which causes uterine contractions) without even asking her, telling her what she is getting, or informing her of the side effects. The kicker is that she didn't need that crap in her veins to begin with! This is some serious, criminal shit going on that violates the human right to not just informed consent but also to informed refusal. What we have here is a medical system that is rot with fear of litigation, fear of birth and fear of losing control. A system that has nine in ten women receiving maternity care that puts women and babies at risk of being harmed instead of keeping them safe.  The only way things will change is when birthing families take to the streets and start demanding change. They are the consumers and generally 50% of a hospitals revenue comes from birth patients. We all know money talks! Well, the time has come mi amigos. A few of us birth professionals, including myself, got so sick of watching women's birth experiences get ripped away from them for no reason and sick of watching the hospital machine abuse women and babies. Finally, we got together and started this movement and the ball is rolling. I have so much hope and faith with this years turnout. Last years rally was a success nation wide but without much media coverage. This year we grew so much and had human rights lawyers, congress, and many more families come forth to strengthen our presence. We had national and local news coverage that held true to our message. Guess what? I look pretty good on the camera! Haha!  Anyway, it is a start for sure and I am happy with the progress. I hope your Labor Day was as cool as mine and remember, when it comes to giving birth in America, the care that is received should be questioned, examined, and and weighed before handing over our bodies and babies.

here is a link to the CNN clip http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1031239
and the local spot http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=9233894

Peace,

Kimme M.