The farce of the privacy law and lack of enforcement:

Two years ago, when Bill Clinton had heart surgery performed in New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, 17 hospital employees — including a doctor — peeked at the former president’s health care records out of curiosity. Earlier this year, Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital repeatedly faxed patient admission sheets to a nearby bank by accident. The faxing continued even after bank employees warned the hospital. In Hawaii, Wilcox Memorial Hospital lost a thumb drive containing personal information on every one of its 120,000 current and former patients.

None of the institutions involved in these incidents has been fined under the highly touted medical privacy law, known as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).