(Washington Post via MSN) – Epic’s disclosures offer a rare glimpse into the unseen workings of how your personal medical records move from one network to another, who has access to them, and where there may be gaps that allow medical privacy to be breached and sensitive information exploited for commercial gain.

If bad actors’ access isn’t curtailed, Epic argues in a lawsuit it filed last week, the viability of the U.S. system for sharing health records is threatened. Some of the firms targeted by Epic contend they were performing legitimate services for patients that complied with federal privacy requirements, and they accuse Epic of acting in bad faith.

The networks for sharing identifiable patient records operate similarly to those for cellphones. (Read More)