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President Bush's Department of Health and Human Services has proposed changing rules that currently protect patients' medical privacy. The Bush administration proposal would make it more difficult for patients to determine in advance who uses their health information and for what purposes.

Current regulations, put in place by the Clinton Administration, require patients to provide written consent before health care providers disclose their records to doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, or insurance companies. The Bush administration would eliminate those requirements, instead saying that patients must be informed at some point that their records have been disclosed. In addition, the new Bush rules would make it easier for researchers to view your private medical records.

The insurance industry hailed the Bush administration decision, since it gives insurance companies greater access to patients' private medical records. The insurance industry donated more than $1.6 million to Bush's campaign in 2000. But privacy advocates blasted the proposal. The decision "cuts the legs off the privacy regulation," said Janlori Goldman, director of Georgetown University's Health Privacy Project. [Washington Post; 3/22/02; Center for Responsive Politics]