OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – On Saturday, hundreds of health care protesters in Oklahoma marched from Oklahoma Health Care Authority construction of Oklahoma State Capitol to fight for mental health privacy.
A new bill, if approved, is supposed to take effect on July 1str and would require all health care providers to enter patient records into an online database.
Many protesters on Saturday argued it was a violation of patients’ rights and privacy.
The march comes less than a week ago Oklahoma Health Care Authority The Board of Directors plans to give the final votes on the new law.
“The way it will affect our patients and our customers is that they will have less privacy protections. They will have less ability to protect their mental health data. And we just want to make sure that people understand that mental health records are more important, they’re more private than your regular medical records,” said Sabrina DeQuasie, Oklahoma Privacy Providers.
Organizers of Saturday’s protest said that through the march, they wanted to make patients and customers aware of how this would affect their privacy.
“A lot of people don’t realize that we have rules in place that keep it separate from your medical record… But it will also change how your providers are able to deliver services to you as well. And that means we’re going to have to give the state information that we think is private and that we don’t have to give them our rights,” DeQuasie said.
Protesters also said they are worried it will drive health care providers out of the field.
“This is a demand that is enforced and we have to do this… The state is not involved in their health care. They don’t give money. They are simply asking us to put their information in a state database. And they’ve said they’re going to use it for demographic information and things like that. And I think it’s going to be really harmful to people who need counseling,” said Carla, a protester and health care worker.
On the other hand, Oklahoma Health Authority Secretary Kevin Corbett said this new law would break new ground in health care.
“This is something that we believe will add to coordination of care, better treatments, better flow of information,” Secretary Kevin Corbett said. Oklahoma Health Care Authority
Corbett also wanted to reassure everyone that there would be a “very strict approach” regarding who can view the database.
“There is a lot of security surrounding this data, as you would expect. It’s personal health information that we want to make sure we all have a responsibility to protect,” Corbett said.
of OHCA The Board of Directors will cast the final votes on Wednesday, March 22n.d at 14:00 KFOR will bring you the result then.
You can find more about the bill here.
