PositiveID's Implantable Microchip

PositiveID Deal Advances Use of Microchip Implants in Florida Health System

December 3, 2009

BNet - PositiveID (PSID), the microchip implant health record marketer formerly known as VeriChip, has entered into a “strategic alliance” with Innovations Avocare to use the chips in Florida’s various regional healthcare organizations. PositiveID said that integrating its Health Link microchip into the system will serve more than 1 million patients.

The alliance brings PositiveID one step closer to its dream of having as many Americans as possible volunteer to have a microchip surgically implanted under their skin that will link to an online database containing their medical records. BNET has previously noted that PositiveID also owns a credit monitoring and identity-theft prevention company, Steel Vault, and that it envisions its chips being linked to Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and employers. PositiveID explicitly linked Steel Vault to Health Link in its most recent 10-Q form with the SEC:

Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2009, with the acquisition of Steel Vault, the Company intends to pursue its strategy to offer identification tools and technologies for consumers and businesses, including healthcare identification products, initially focused on the Health Link personal health record and the identification security products currently offered by NationalCreditReport.com.

The PositiveID/Avocare alliance will doubtless be painted by critics as a sinister development in which Americans’ medical privacy will end up becoming the online plaything of PositiveID, and that life in the U.S. will become difficult for those who do not want a chip inside them (in much the same way as it is currently difficult for anyone without a credit card, cellphone, email address or internet access) ...

VeriChip Re-Launches Its VeriMed Health Link EHR System (8/25/09)

VeriChip Corporation has developed the VeriMed™ Health Link System for rapidly and accurately identifying people who arrive in an emergency room and are unable to communicate; this system uses the first human-implantable passive RFID microchip and corresponding personal health record, cleared for medical use in October 2004 by the United States Food and Drug Administration... The Company believes its history and expertise in patient identification and electronic health records (EHRs) will position it to benefit from stimulus funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which authorized $23 billion in spending for healthcare information technology, with a concentration on the implementation and adoption of EHRs... In early 2008, the Company changed the name of this system to Health Link and has enrolled a total of 536 patients in the Health Link EHR... The Company said it has begun a process to ensure that its EHR is compliant with the certifications set by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), thereby enabling those physicians and hospitals that utilize the Company's EHR to qualify for stimulus funding.

VeriChip Buys Steel Vault, Changes Name to “PositiveID,” Creating Micro-Implant Health Record/Credit Score Empire

November 12, 2009

industry.bnet.com - VeriChip (CHIP), the company that markets a microchip implant that links to your online health records, has acquired Steel Vault (SVUL), a credit monitoring and anti-identity theft company. The combined company will operate under a new name: PositiveID.

The all-stock transaction will leave PositiveID in charge of a burgeoning empire of identity, health and microchip implant businesses that will only encourage its critics. BNET previously noted that some regard the company as part of a prophecy in the Book of Revelation (because the HealthLink chip carries an RFID number that can be used as both money and proof of ID) or as part of President Obama’s secret Nazi plan to enslave America.

The most obvious criticism to be made of the deal is that it potentially allows PositiveID to link or cross-check patient health records (from the HealthLink chip) to people’s credit scores. One assumes that the company will put up firewalls to prevent that. PositiveID CEO Scott Silverman said:

“PositiveID will be the first company of its kind to combine a successful identity security business with one of the world’s first personal health records through our Health Link business. PositiveID will address some of the most important issues affecting our society today with our identification tools and technologies for consumers and businesses.”

Unless, of course, consumers don’t actually want to be implanted with chips, have their health records available over the internet, or have their medical records linked to their credit scores.



Editor's Note: If the government can require us to purchase health insurance, will it also require us to get microchip implants as part of our health care plans?

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PositiveID Deal Advances Use of Microchip Implants in Florida Health System
VeriChip Re-Launches its VeriMed Health Link EHR System (8/25/09)
VeriChip Corporation has developed the VeriMed™ Health Link System for rapidly and accurately identifying people who arrive in an emergency room and are unable to communicate; this system uses the first human-implantable passive RFID microchip and corresponding personal health record, cleared for medical use in October 2004 by the United States Food and Drug Administration... The Company believes its history and expertise in patient identification and EHRs will position it to benefit from stimulus funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which authorized $23 billion in spending for healthcare information technology, with a concentration on the implementation and adoption of EHRs... In early 2008, the Company changed the name of this system to Health Link and has enrolled a total of 536 patients in the Health Link EHR... The Company said it has begun a process to ensure that its EHR is compliant with the certifications set by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), thereby enabling those physicians and hospitals that utilize the Company's EHR to qualify for stimulus funding.