IP: Groups Warn of Breaches in Privacy Laws for Patients

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/A21639-2000Apr15.html

By Susan Okie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 16, 2000; Page A02

Doctor groups and privacy advocates have charged that new government 
rules, touted as protecting patients' confidentiality, will instead 
make it easier for employers, researchers, law enforcement officials, 
the federal government and others to gain access to people's medical 
records without their consent.

The Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing some 53,000 
public comments on the proposed regulations, which were announced 
last fall and are expected to be issued in final form sometime in the 
next few months.

The new rules, mandated by Congress, represent the first federal 
effort to safeguard the privacy of medical records. When President 
Clinton unveiled them last fall, he said, "They would greatly limit 
the release of private health information without consent."

But by eliminating the requirement for patient consent in many 
situations, the rules would have the opposite effect, predicted 
Richard Sobel, a political scientist at Harvard Medical School.

The administration "stressed the privacy protections," Sobel said. 
"But . . . it turns out that these regulations essentially abolish 
informed consent" if a patient's medical records are being used for 
providing treatment, arranging payment or for "health care 
operations," an ill-defined term that covers many activities of 
managed-care plans and health insurers.

In addition, under some circumstances, the rules would permit health 
providers to release private medical information without obtaining a 
patient's consent to police, employers, researchers and government 
data banks.

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