Thursday, January 31, 2002
Citizens’ Council on Health Care
1954 University Ave. W., Suite 8
St. Paul, MN 55104
CONTACT:Twila Brase, R.N., President
PHONE: 651-646-8935
St. Paul, Minnesota-The U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services today released $1.1 billion and a plan to build government
health surveillance systems in every state. The stated goal: to enhance public
health infrastructure for bioterrorism preparedness. The plan: government
access to everyone’s medical record through their hospitals and doctor’s
offices.
“The public was never consulted about this plan. The very
idea that government officials plan to get a direct line into the medical records
of patients should outrage citizens. Private medical records are not public
data,” said Twila Brase, R.N., president of Citizens’ Council on Health Care
(CCHC), a health care policy organization in St. Paul, Minnesota.
State must draw up a plan to present to HHS by no later
than April 15, 2002. Sixteen criteria must be part of each state plan,
including:
·
Timeline for development of a state-wide plan for
response to a bioterrorist event, infectious disease outbreak, or other public health
emergency.
·
Ability to receive and evaluate urgent disease reports
from all parts of the jurisdiction on a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week basis.
·
Communication systems that provide a 24/7 flow of
critical health information between hospital emergency departments, State and
local health officials, and law enforcement.
“The HHS plan represents a greater danger to patients than
bioterrorism,” said Brase. “Just knowing government officials and police
officers will receive patient data without patient consent will change the way
patients interact with the health care system. They may not tell their doctors the whole story. They may come for
care too late. They may receive the wrong diagnoses, the wrong treatment, the
wrong advice.”
Legislative requirements for meeting HHS criteria were
built into the Model Emergency State Health Powers Act released in October by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Act, now under consideration
in all 50 State legislatures, requires ongoing reporting by health care
providers and pharmacists to the state public health department. It also
permits epidemiological research without patient consent, at both the state and
federal level.
“This plan is not just about bioterrorism. HHS officials
plan to use patients for medical research without their consent,” said Brase. “Public health officials have long expressed
a desire to track and tag the entire population. They hope September 11th
will make their dreams come true.”
CCHC is an independent non-profit health care policy
organization
located in St. Paul, Minnesota
A
free-market resource for designing the future of health care
Citizens’ Council on Health Care
1954 University Ave.W., Suite 8
St. Paul, MN 55104
651-646-8935 phone
651-646-0100 fax
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Thank you.
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