The explosion of the Internet and electronic/wireless devices has given rise to instantaneous data sharing and information transfer. Part of me wonders if this will ultimately be a boon to individuals or the beginning of a horror story, the plot of which has not yet been defined, outlined, nor communicated.
Yesterday, I was at a local health-care facility to have routine laboratory work done prior to my physical. While at the check-in desk, the usual questions regarding personal information were asked: "Is your address still....?" "Is your phone number still....?" "Is your primary insurance still with...?" "Who is your physician?" These questions are always justified with the statements, "We need to update our records.", and, "To protect your personal privacy.....", all the while a line of people behind you are listening. (This is oxymoronic as far as I'm concerned.) However, if you want to achieve your goal of seeing a physician or taking advantage of an offered medical service, i.e. the lab, you have to play the game.
Just when I thought the annoying circumstance was over, the receptionist then proclaimed that, "for privacy protection", she needed to see my driver's license and insurance cards. Although my insurance cards have always been in my 'file', I agreeably acquiesced. Upon producing them to her, she took them, slid them through this slick, tiny scanner, after which she stated that they were now in my 'file' and I could proceed to the lab. As I moved toward the door that would take me to the incompetent lab tech who would fail to read my lab paperwork carefully, to whom I would have to politely insist that she had left out one 'step' and would eventually re-read the paperwork and discover that, yes, I was correct, I began wondering just why my driver's license was really a necessary part of my medical file's history. Oh, I heard the part about identity-theft prevention, but my ever-growing cynicism tells me that this is just one more link in the web of interconnected personal information that is being compiled about each of us, in a system that is about as secure as the reading skill - or lack thereof - of the lab technician that was more interested in jabbering about the weather to me than reading my paperwork carefully.
And now, my own rhetorical questions:
Just where is this all headed? Do we really want to know 'the end of the story'?
Ancora imparo
