

Patient privacy best protected by a doctor’s poor handwriting.
Back when giants ruled the earth, a snooper need to trek across the country, ask a harried file clerk for the file that hopefully wasn’t lost, wade through a a foot thick folder, then hopefully decipher the doctors shitty handwriting before finding out about anything juicy. In any case, the file was burned in 7 years or so because the file room needed space.
Nowadays, any secretary can instantly access the data from a computer on the other side of the continent and the files are never purged.
It’s not funny, it’s sad. The HIPAA releases to you sign gives permission to pretty much use you info for any reason whatsoever.
In the past, it was pretty much impossible to get your medical records.
Now that they are digitized, everyone and their uncle has access, legitimately or otherwise. Medical institutions don’t hire the best to secure their data. It’s all security theater.