[Med-privacy] SSNs & blood donors

[Jeff Williams]

pmarshall and all,

    The code which you point to and rightly indicate, does in no reasonable
way "Require" blood donation centers or services, public or private as
to do so assumes every donor is or may be a a HIV risk or HIV+.  This
is an assumption that is hardly accurate.  In addition, the code which
you site as you provided below, that said SSN's when provided if
the donor is not a HIV risk or HIV+ from his/her blood donated
and tested, the records for his/her SSN and address information
is deleted or made undisclosable.  What troubling is that given
errors of lack of responsibility and oversight, the donor can never
be reasonably sure this has been actually effected, nor it he/she
informed of said deletion or rendering of same, undisclosable...


pmarshall wrote:

> [anon.]
>
> Several years ago, Congress added a provision to the Internal Revenue Code
> disclosure provisions (6103) explicitly allowing disclosures of donors'
> address information to blood banks on the chance that a donor would be
> HIV+.  These are not "wholesale" disclosures; they can only occur when a
> donor has tested + for HIV/AIDS and where the bank/center has no other
> information (or has bad information) on locating the donor.  As of 4 years
> ago (the last time I checked) no disclosures have ever occurred under that
> provision. (The program is called the "Blood Donor Locator Service.") In
> any event, that's the main reason that blood centers "require" the SSN.
>
> Here's the language of the section from the IRC:
>
> 45 USC 6103(m)(6)
>
> (6) Blood Donor Locator Service
>
> (A) In general
>
> Upon written request pursuant to section 1141 of the Social Security Act,
> the Secretary shall disclose the mailing address of taxpayers to officers
> and employees of the Blood Donor Locator Service in the Department of
> Health and Human Services.
>
> (B) Restriction on disclosure
>
> The Secretary shall disclose return information under subparagraph (A)
> only for purposes of, and to the extent necessary in, assisting under the
> Blood Donor Locator Service authorized persons (as defined in section
> 1141(h)(1) of the Social Security Act) in locating blood donors who, as
> indicated by donated blood or products derived therefrom or by the history
> of the subsequent use of such blood or blood products, have or may have
> the virus for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, in order to inform such
> donors of the possible need for medical care and treatment.
>
> (C) Safeguards
>
> The Secretary shall destroy all related blood donor records (as defined in
> section 1141(h)(2) of the Social Security Act) in the possession of the
> Department of the Treasury upon completion of their use in making the
> disclosure required under subparagraph (A), so as to make such records
> undisclosable.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Med-privacy mailing list
> Med-privacy@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/med-privacy

Regards,
--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" -
    Pierre Abelard

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
===============================================================
Updated 1/26/04
CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security
IDNS. div. of Information Network Eng.  INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
 Registered Email addr with the USPS
Contact Number: 214-244-4827