A rock and a hard place? Ministry of Defence | Defence News | MOD confirms loss of recruitment data

[Roland Perry]

In article <479E5B31.5080507@defoam.net>, Adrian Midgley 
<amidgley2@defoam.net> writes
>>> In a three-to-two ruling, a New York state appellate court ruled 
>>>that  punitive damages can be awarded for the unintentional 
>>>disclosure of  sensitive medical information. In the case of Randi 
>>>A.J. (Anonymous)  v. Long Island Surgi-Center, No. 2005-04976 (N.Y. 
>>>Sup. Ct. App. Div.  Sept. 25, 2007), despite specific instructions 
>>>from the  twenty-year-old patient not to contact her at home, the 
>>>center placed  a call to the home
>
>Yet again, more information was collected and held than was needed, and 
>ill came of it.
>
>If the patient's home address and phone number had not been provided 
>then the information she did not wish revealed to there would have been 
>distinctly difficult to reveal to there.

Is it generally possible to be a patient in the USA and not reveal your 
address, though? The system of paying for treatment via insurance 
companies probably has the side effect that the hospital wants to be 
able to collect the bill if for some reason the insurance company 
refuses to pay.
-- 
Roland Perry