My doctor, whom I see weekly, is part of a large hospital system. The health system is newly partnered with Amazon to have palm scanners at every location, which are supposed to make checking in quicker and more secure (see here: NYU Langone adds Amazon One palm-scanning tech for appointment check-in ).
Each time I get to the office, they tell me they have no choice but to have me scan my palm and then opt me out of the system afterward. Supposedly, this involves them throwing out my biometric data straight away once I’m opted out.
What would you do in this situation? I’ve pled repeatedly with the receptionist and I just filed a compliance report with the health system a few minutes ago, but I’m still going to have to show up on Monday morning and get told to present my palm once again so they can scan me and then “opt me out”. Obviously I’m going to switch doctors if nothing comes of me filing the compliance report, but I’m not sure what to do until then. I’ve tried outright refusing the scan and got told they wouldn’t be able to check me in otherwise. Should I just walk out next time? How badly did I screw up in letting them scan me already?
This is a terrible situation. Sorry you have to go through this.
I would find a new health care provider as soon as possible and postpone if anything can be postponed until then. But this is just absurd that they are now forcing this onto people.
Gigantic tech have no business in public utility industries especially when the opt out system in place is beyond moronic. I mean, this is the kind of logic you find at nation states close to failing as a nation state. How stupid do they think people are?
Most hospitals have a patient relations office you can contact to make your concerns heard. You could try reaching out to them. You could also try telling your doctor about it. Depending on who they are/who they know in administration, they may be able to pull some strings.
Beyond that and switching to a new provider, I’m not sure there’s much you can do unfortunately
this is bs, there is no opt-out, they’re just trying to coerce you to comply.
if you’re in USA you may have additional affordances under the ADA, and you can contact a civil rights attorney who works at the federal level to aid you. those two clarifiers are critical, no one else deals with non-work related ADA enforcement.
Every hospital has a chief medical officer and they often have duties that include meeting with patients with concerns. Try an appointment there. The CMO usually sits on the same board with the CTO, COO, etc. Use terms like “invasive,” “I’m now very uncomfortable here,” “feels very impersonal,” “no longer feels like a place of healing,” “I don’t feel welcome.” In hospitals the principled people are the healthcare workers most of the time, not management. Raise hell with them.
The challenge is that a deal was likely made between Amazon and the business types that don’t really care about plebs TBH. But, if the “healing mission” is derailed, some healthcare institutions will correct course.
Another strategy is to say that a palm scanner really spikes your anxiety. Some in a hospital will respond to a mention of an exacerbated condition.
Welcome to the forum and sorry you have to go through this. Amazon One is optional. There are other doctor’s offices that have this sign-in technique and I’ve refused it every time. Amazon One has a whole sales pitch and FAQ for "handling luddites” it gives to places that implement this system. One of those pitches is to make the “luddite” think the system is mandatory. It is not.
The first time I was told I had to do it, I simply refused. The next time I was told it’s mandatory. I refused saying I don’t have an amazon account (which is true). If you never enroll in the system, then there is nothing to match or authenticate.
Amazon has a long page for their amazon one privacy policy. One can also say you don’t agree with the amazon terms of service nor the privacy policy. It doesn’t matter if the venue does, HIPPA, privacy laws, and contract law works on the two party system. You are one of the parties. Simply refuse. My lawyer suggests that biometrics are not covered under HIPAA, but rather contract and privacy law.
The best thing I saw happen was some someone sneezed on her hand and then smeared it on the palm scanner. No one touched/hovered over it after that. I’m pretty sure she knew exactly what she was doing, because she played dumb and did a good job of smearing her phlegm all over the glass. And the receptionist was, “no no no, don’t touch it, just hover over it!”
Classic.
Amazon’s whole pitch is that “patient check-in takes too long” is bs. 99% of my doctor’s visits they ask my name and birth year and that’s it. I’m “checked in”. If it’s a new doctor, the check-in process is the fastest part. I’m then handed a multi-page form or tablet and told to fill it out. Every tablet I’ve been handed is running some stock system and I can pull up a web browser and then ask the receptionist why there are ads on my medical intake form. Every doctor’s office has a paper process. They just try to push technology solutions because they don’t want to seem archaic.
This is interesting. If this medical office is part of a larger network I think you should consider contacting the privacy office and/or a patient advocate, as others have said. I’m not saying you will make significant progress, but I personally feel pushback is warranted here.
I also haven’t seen much of this in the media. You might continue to collect and document conversations you have. If there is a breach in the future media outlets may appreciate any insight or experience you have about the process and attempting to opt out.
Considering the sheer volume of extremely personal data points your average EHR would have on a patient, some might not find Amazon’s palm print collection invasive. Personally, I feel we have very robust methods of identifying responsive patients today and the attack on personal privacy is incremental.
I also recommend starting with the route of talking to someone in a patient relations at the hospital to opt out - same process as if you were skipping facial recognition at the airport. If you can opt out of facial recognition at the airport, you can opt out of this. This is likely all a corporate tie-in with the hospital and Amazon, and they will tell you it’s required until you say you need to export patient records - try the “walk away” and see if the story changes.
I did not use the term privacy advocate, I said privacy office.
It is entirely possible there is an opt out process the details of which has not been provided to front line staff. The privacy office may have more details about the opt out process and be able to provide that information to OP.
You can do what I do, which is curl up your hand and having it keep not read it and just say, I’m sorry, it’s not working. My hands have arthritis, which mine actually do.
As a disabled person, I give you full permission to do it, and I won’t even cancel you. Lol.
It actually is messed up for disabled people who can’t move their arms or hands good or have deformities.
Find a new doctor that doesn’t do this! There are other hospitals. Are you legally required to go to that doctor and hospital system?
You find a new doctor and appointment, then just tell the receptionist to send the new records over to the new doctor and you were unsatisfied with their care. You aren’t required to provide a convincing reason.
Anything else, you are giving some version of your biometric information to a large USA corporation that is absolutely going to lie to you, say they will delete it, and then keep it forever for the US governemnt, which has proven that they are willing to lie to people to further their Orwellian agenda.
There is no way there is an real opt out. They are allowed to lie to you and all the doctors and privacy people there will just say what they are supposed to. Unless you see the actual server storage and code showing the palm print was deleted after, then you don’t know, and of course they are lying.
Curling your hand up doesn’t matter.
Look, if you are some white person who is pro-religious-conservativism and has no controversial political views and leads a boring life, then it may not matter if you submit to palm scanning. But even then, the political views of who is in power keeps changing, the Owellian system does not. Why would you voluntarily do something like that?
Hi all, I really appreciate the advice everyone gave. Just wanted to offer an update: I wasn’t even asked to give a scan at my appointment this morning and was sent straight in to see the doctor. Regardless, I’m still switching providers to avoid ever having to potentially deal with the scanners at a later date (and also because this doctor never has any availability despite telling me I need to see him weekly lol). I will be making sure to note the coerced scans in as many public reviews of the clinic as I can find places to post it.
I hope everyone faced with getting scanned in the future smears as much snot, or whatever other kinds of goop they can muster, as they possibly can all over those stupid things.