CVS thinks $50 is enough reward for giving up healthcare privacy
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20130816,0,2932825.column
From the article:
The drugstore chain is expanding its ExtraCare rewards program for prescription drugs, but to join consumers must give up healthcare privacy protections under HIPAA.
Since February, CVS Caremark has been pushing its pharmacists to enroll customers in a prescription-drug rewards program.
The benefit to customers is the opportunity to earn up to $50 a year in store credits that can be used to buy shampoo, toothpaste or other products.
The benefit to CVS is persuading pharmacy customers, through questionable means, to give up federal privacy safeguards for their medical information and permitting the company to share people’s drug purchases with others.
The fine print on CVS’ website says that “each person must sign a HIPAA Authorization to join” and that “you must re-sign the HIPAA Authorization once per year to retain active enrollment.”
Of course … the $50 is actually a STORE CREDIT .. so CVS is not actually giving away $50… they are giving away whatever their cost is of the products that the customer purchases.. If the customer doesn’t redeem the credits… they GIVE AWAY their PHI for FREE ..
AND.. they only get $5 credit for every TEN PRESCRIPTIONS they have filled.. how many people get ONE HUNDRED PRESCRIPTIONS filled EVERY YEAR ?
Filed under: General Problems
Just think…if people give up their privacy, CVS can SELL their data. Data is worth money and a lot of companies will pay for that data. Just another CVS scam.
It is also correct that the number of “signups” per each cashier are tracked as is every phone call, scan bypass, override, etc. If only 10% of that effort was put into patient care.