http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7341/806/b

BMJ 2002;324:806 ( 6 April )

News

Bush to drop medical records privacy clause

Fred Charatan, Florida

In a controversial move the Bush administration has said that US doctors and hospitals should not have to obtain patients' consent before using or disclosing medical information for the purpose of treatment or reimbursementa move that flies in the face of legislation passed two years ago.

The privacy protection rules are part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, passed by Congress in 1996. President Clinton issued the rules, the first comprehensive federal standards for medical privacy, in December 2000, calling them "the most sweeping privacy protections ever written."

Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said he wanted to remove the consent requirements because he believed that they could delay care.

Hospitals and insurance companies praised Bush's proposal. Karen Ignagni, president of the American Association of Health Plans, which represents more than 1000 health maintenance organisations and preferred provider organisations, said the discarded rules could have "unduly restricted the flow of vital medical information between physicians, hospitals, and health plans and access to quality and affordable health care."

But consumer advocates and Democratic members of Congress denounced the proposal as a threat to privacy. Janlori Goldman, coordinator of the Consumer Coalition for Health Privacy, an alliance of more than 100 patients' rights groups, said the administration was proposing "a destructive change."

Senator Edward M Kennedy, Democratic spokesman on health care, said that he was "very concerned," because he believed that "an individual should have to give permission before medical information is disclosed."

(Credit: AP PHOTO/JACQUELINE ROGGENBRODT)   Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson

© BMJ 2002
 

PDF of this article Email this article to a friend Send a response to this article Download to Citation Manager Search Medline for articles by: Charatan, F. Alert me when: New articles cite this article

Collections under which this article appears: Governments - non UK

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.