After 9/11, many consumers are concern with private data being outsource for processing. As an Information Systems Manager, I was asked to research this issue. Our company deals with outsourcing medical transcription to several Asian and Eastern European countries. Medical transcriptionists are employed by physicians and other health care providers to convert dictated notes into a written medical record in an electronic form (Skarda-McCann, J., 2006). Our customers are concerned with their private medical history falling into the wrong hands. And truthfully, this information is sensitive, and our clients expected this data to be protected in the United States and should not exist overseas.
If private data are released or used in a fraudulent manner, law enforcement in the United States has no jurisdiction. And this can be a national security problem in the making of terrorist who have access to social security number, medical history, financial information, etc. In the fall of 2003, major newspapers have reported at least two incident concerns with threats by foreigner who uses personal medical and financial information to blackmail individuals. One of the threats concern with a medical transcriptionist in Karachi, Pakistan who send email message to the University Of California San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) expecting payment for her work, with patient files attached (Skarda-McCann, J., 2006). Another threats deal with Heartland Information Services, a company based out of Ohio, receiving email message from an employees in Bangalore, India, who attempted to extort money by threatening to reveal confidential materials (Skarda-McCann, J., 2006).
Most patients do not know that their medical information was transmitted abroad following a visit at the hospital. “Transcription of medical records generally is classified as one of the operations for which health care providers can disclose individuals’ information without meeting the statutory requirement of...