you sign it every time you see your doctor, a hipaa form designed to protect your medical information. one privacy advocate isn't buying it. then we'll talk to a local lawyer to help us separate the hipaa fact from fiction. that plus march madness, a sports psychologists talks about why we love our brackets even when they let us down. we begin with the hipaa privacy regulations. it's meant to be a national standard for protecting your medical records. hipaa regulations set boundaries on the use and release of health records. the regulations hold violators

accountable with civil and criminal penalties. they enable patients to learn how their information may be used and they can obtain a copy of their health records and request corrections. joining me is the president and co-founder of citizen's council for health freedom. she's a registered nurse. she says the mission is support the protection of health care choices and medical choices. thank you for being with us. >> flood dplglad to be here. thank you. >> why are you urging people not to sign the hipaa forms? >> the hipaa form is really a deception. what hipaa is or what the public believes about it is is it protects their privacy. it does the opposite. once hipaa became law in 1996 and the rule went into effect, what happened was all sorts of people were allowed to share and access our medical records without our consent.

it is the only reason that we have computerized medical records and the only reason that the health department says, for instance, that 700,000 covered entities which are doctors and hospitals and clinics and health plans can have access to our data -- they can have access to the data plus there's business associates and government agencies that can have access without our consent if there's a reason to know according to those holding our data. they're not going to ask us whether that data can be shared because hipaa allows it to be shared without patient consent. >> do they make the patient aware it's going to be shared? >> here's what happens at the doctor's office. oftentimes when you come into the office the clinic hands you a form and says this is the hipaa form or hand you a consent form and there it will say i have acknowledged that i have received the notice of privacy practices.

it's a deception. people talk about it as though it's a privacy form. it's a disclosure form, really. secondly, you don't have to sign this. it doesn't matter if you sign it or not, your data will get shared. 22 members of congress or their staff when we were in washington d.c. when i said what does it mean when you sign that form two a person, they said it means that my information is between me and my doctor. but that is not true. that is the deception that the american public has heard because they keep hearing the words privacy. even the form, the hipaa form is -- i have received or i have acknowledged that i have received or seen this form. the form is called the notice of privacy practices. but it should with called the notice of disclosure practices. but because it's called privacy practice, nobody looks at it to see what little privacy they have. >> you've touched on who can take a look at your information.

be more specific in terms of government and business entities and health care providers. >> sure. actually, the u.s. department of health and human services recently came out with a list of, for instance, some of the activities that can be done under something called health care operations. health care operations is a 390 word definition, and it has all of these things and all of these businesses that can have access as a result. so, for instance, all the businesses processes of a health plan, so if it's accounting or auditing or it could be for research or it could be there's 12 national priority purposes which gives the government access. so for certain law enforcement activities and certain judicial activities, public health oversight. they can get into your medical records to make assessments for you for the public health of the state or country. they can look at your doctor. they can look at cost. they can look at all this stuff, and they can come out with

assessments on the pay sis basir information that may hurt you in the end. >> does your employer have access? >> if your employer is a self-funded employer, in other words, they actually are the insurance company for their -- >> self-insured? >> that's right. then they have more access. it's not as much, but there is still access there. they're paying the bills so they have to be able to have some access. >> if you don't sign the form, can your doctor refuse treatment in. >> no, and we have had a campaign for a long time, probably about three or four years now. we have had a tiny little card which i brought with me. it says you can refuse the sign the form. we have had people all over the country refusing the sign the form, and then they're coming to our website, cchfreedom.org, and they're pressing the button to tell us their story about how they were denied access to care.

however, just recently, we discovered this form. i think that the department has heard from people and doctors about this problem. on the back of the form it says right here, you do not have to sign the form, and they still have to treat you. so that is the first time that the government has made that kind of acknowledgment, and why do we want people to sign the form? it's because we do not want people to participate any more in the deception that it gives you privacy. the only way we can get people's consent rights back over what happens to your data is if they do not think that we have privacy already. if they think we have privacy they're calm. they're not concerned at all, but if they realize that essentially 2.2 million entities plus government agencies could have access to their data if the people who hold their data think they have a right to know or hipaa provides it directly. >> talk about electronic health records and how they play into

this. >> electronic health records could have been possible before hipaa if a doctor kept them within his four walls. he had to legally protect the privacy of that patient. with hipaa now everybody's records can be computerized and linked together into what they call a national health information network. that's where the federal government is moving. at the state level, there are state health information exchanges, and so all that data can be pulled together, it can be computerized, pulled toget r together, linked. the plan for electronic health records for those who want them to become a national medical records system is a realtime longitude linked medical record so any practitioner could get onto your record and see what happened to you from the beginning to the ends. the reality is there are things you don't want dr. a to know that you might want dr. b to know? >> like what?

>> you might not want him to know went to an oncologist because you want a fresh opinion. if you have a lifelong record, there's no fresh second opinions unless you can find somebody who is off the grid. there are increasingly some doctors that are choosing to not have electronic health records because of the cost and the privacy concerns. but it would be very difficult, and you're not going to be able to necessarily find the doctor that you want. >> why do you think it is that people aren't truly informed about hipaa? >> well, i actually think that was just how the law was made. the reason is because they call it privacy. they tell you you have to sign. the clinics actually think and believe that it has something to do with privacy and that it gives you control, and so they don't tell you, and then there's just the words. notice of privacy practices. so if you have to sign for most people that signs you're

protecting yourself. but you're really not. i think that deception was built into the law and into the rule. >> thank you very much for your insight. we appreciate you being here. >> thank you. i appreciate it. coming up next, why your family and friends may be able to get more access to your health records than you might think. >> if i'm unconscious and she's bringing me in, they can make a decision that he thinks it's in my best interest and hers to share that information. >> we'll detail the ins and outs of hipaa and your privacy when we come back.

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sometimes the regulations can be confusing causing some health care providers to block access. joining me now is an attorney who specializes in health law. his focus is on regulatory and compliance issues for a variety of physician groups and health care providers. he also has significant experience with hipaa and privacy issues. let's get a basic understanding of what hipaa is and what it intends to do. >> hipaa is a sort of national statute that started off with in 1996 for the privacy of medical records. it came online in 2003. it applies initially the statute applied to covered sentities, health care providers, hospitals, physicians, pharma pharmacyin pharmacyinpharmacy, health plans and health care clearinghouses. there's also a term called business associates that are under the statute.

these are folks that help them in their operations. i think the cleanest example of that is a billing company. you may have a small physician office group that deals with 20 different health insurers and keeping up with the billing requirements can be difficult to do. they hire a billing company to do that. then they have to transmit personal health information to the billing company about their patient so they can properly bill it. initially all the statute required was a contract between that hospital or physician's group and the business associates showing how the business associate was going to keep that data private, keep it safe, the protections in place for it. now since 2009, business associates are under the statute themselves. and the government can force against them. and it's a much different ball game for business associates. >> let's talk about that compliance. what kind of compliance among health providers does the law have at the time when it comes

to enforcing it? >> it's a pretty complex and big law. as part of hipaa, it was called theed a administrative simplification. but it was complicated. as far as providers and health plans, there's two major pieces of the rules they have to come ply with this. one is called the privacy rule nature th. that broadly sets out limits of who can have access to your health information and who can't and certain exceptions. the second part is the security rule. that's technical in nature. this is really trying to make sure that the people who don't get access don't get access, things like encryption, password protected computers, those types of things. those are the main two rules, that business associates have to comply with. >> let's touch on the security rule and encryption. cyber crime is a real issue with your health information. >> it is. unfortunately cyber crime now is

really up on the rampage. last year there was the anthem breach. 78 to 80 million people had there -- >> i think i was a part of that. i not a notification. >> most people were affected one way or another. 80 million people is a lot of people. the deal is that health care information is incredibly robust. there's a lot of information. compare it to just credit card information. it has your name and credit card information and your credit card number and that's it. on the black market a health care information, health care record sells for 10 to 20 or even 30 times more than that. it has your full time, address, date of birth, insurance claim numbers. people use it -- it's robust information for identity theft. people use it to file false insurance claims, and to get prescription drugs. it's on the rise. health care criminals are really targeting it. fbi put out a lot of warnings.

in fact, just last month that to me is scary, at a hospital in california, they shut down the hospital. they hacked into the hospital, shut down all the systems and held them ransom, and they had to pay $17,000 in bid coin, which is a dark web type of currency to get their information back. and they had to go back to paper and pencil records. still, you talk about medical devices. everything these days when you go into a hospital that's interconnected and connected with computers, to shut that down and you think about the patient safety concerns, it's frightening. >> we have time to talk about one last issue related to hipaa. this is sharing your personal medical information with your family and friends. walk us through that. >> yeah. typically -- it's okay under hipaa. but the way it works is unless you, if i'm the patient, unless i specifically object, if my pa partner is there, my wife is

there and part of my care and treatment and i don't object, the doctors can share information with him or her. if i'm unconscious and she's bringing me in and part of my treatment, the physician can make a decision that he thinks it's in our best interest to share the information. as long as it looks like the person is a part of the treatment, the person is active, involved in the treatment, and there's no objections to it, it's usually okay to share information. >> no specific objection from the patient? >> exactly. >> greg thank you for being with us. >> thank you. like millions of others, your ncaa bracket probably isn't doing as well as you'd like. next, a sports psychologist explains why that likely won't stop you from the getting into the action again next year.

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march madness has taken on a life of its own. for the next week many will be obsessed with their team and brasket a bracket and the possibility of office bragging rights. with me is a local sports psychologist to help us understand why the college basketball finals have exploded into such a phenomenon. >> pleasure to be here. >> i guess let's first start, what is it about march madness that brings so many people together, even people that don't follow basketball in the regular season. >> that's true. i've been listening to everybody involved. it becomes more than just a sports phenomenon. it's a social phenomena. people arrange parties around it. basketball is a kind of game that's not that complicated. to understand the drama at the end of a game, whether you're familiar with the sport or not, it's easy to get swept up with it. >> office pools as well? >> office pools have back part of your culture as well.

it doesn't matter what kind of business you're in, how well you know people. it gives you something in common to talk about with strangers and people. no matter what your age is your gender or whatever, it's good for morale. it happens oftentimes in office situations. >> doctor fish, you use the word drama. certainly a lot of emotions going into march madness. i want to play a quick clip for you. this is a coach. he's answering a question from an 11-year-old. this happened right after temple's tough loss in the first round of ncaa tournament. >> it was a heart breaking loss, but your upper class men stepped up. how do you feel about them? >> i feel great about them. max, is your name? just like i feel great about you max. you're a pretty cool guy. >> thank you. >> and the fact that you would ask that question the way you asked it, i love these guys. that's the problem.

you love them like crazy, and now they're -- the seniors are gone. so it hurts, to be honest with you, and the abruptness of the ending is frightening. >> that clip and the extended version has gone viral. why do you think that is? >> i think it's gone viral because at the heat of the moment for the coach to have per spil spective like that, with all the emotions that come with losing a tough game. he had the ability to acknowledge a 1 1-year-old for his question of depth. in the heat of the moment, we can understand how it's hard to organize your thoughts and express yourself. the fact he was able to do that i think captured everybody's attention. >> speaking of buzzer beaters, temple and iowa. talk about the psychologist of upsets. >> the formula is almost the same. the underdog just hangs tough.

goes toe to toe with the favorite, and then the pleasure flips onto the favorite because they have everything to lose. crowds tend to like underdogs. no now the crowd gets wrapped up in the underdog, and then at the end where most of the games are decided, can you perform with emotion and execution? i think that's where the drama comes in. when you have nothing to lose like the underdog, sometimes it's easier to perform in a big moment that be when there's more pressure in you, and how that plays out from a psychology point of view or a fan's point of view is what captures my interest. >> certainly a pressure cooker situation. how do coaches manage that in terms of the pressure on their players. they're on this national stage. everybody is watching. how do they manage that? >> we don't talk about staying in the moment. just because these men and women are so big and strong physically, it doesn't mean they're big and strong emotionally. they're only 18 to 23 years old. for a coach to understand

different personality types and who needs a challenge. to be able to do that under pressure tells you a lot about a coach and his ability not only on the xs and os but how to manage the personalities in a key moment. that's a key factor in whether a team is able to handle the pressure and perform to the best of its ability, particularly when the game is on the line. >> in terms of our office pools and brackets that may not have done as well as we'd like. >> you're not talking about yourself? >> no, other people very into this. what keeps people coming back year after year, getting involved? >> i think it's the ultimate reality show. you can't script it. sometimes there's enough reinforcement, i got this right, that it hooks you to come back again. but the drama piece, being part of something with other people, the specialness. >> the comrade di. >> it brings us back. i couldn't underestimate, sometimes when we get it right, that feeling is so good, even show it may not win the pool,

it's enough to keep us coming back next year. >> thank you for talking to us today ensharing your insight. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. your daughter wants to stay organic.

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