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Return to Article: Privacy language urged for bill to digitize federal employee health records

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  Why go digital with everyone's information? As noted before about the VA, why put more people at risk? If the administration is concerned about the economy and job growth, then keep the records in hard copy format. Then record keepers will need to be hired and have continuous work. Going digital with this information leaves it open to hackers and thieves. Using the old pen and paper system still works better than digital in a lot of cases and this is one such case. Our society has gotten lazy and too dependent upon conveniences.

  Is this country folding? Posted June 20, 2006 2:37 AM
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  Am I the only one concerned about the government digitizing federal employee health records? As sincere as their motives may be and as much as they tell us that the information will remain private, our agencies don't have a very good record of keeping confidential information confidential. Just ask the veterans whose confidential information was compromised by an employee of the Veterans Affairs Department and the employees of the Energy Department whose information had been compromised for more than a year before they found out.

  This is outrageous. If we can't do better than this, I say go back to the old pen and paper. I'm not a Luddite, but before we put more people at risk of having their health information compromised, maybe we ought to take a deep breath and a really good look at the type of information we want our government to have all collected in one place. I, for one, would prefer to opt out.

  GovExec.com reader Posted June 19, 2006 3:04 PM