By a party line vote, the U.S. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee voted last night to deny Americans’ medical privacy in the markup of legislation to build a health information technology system that will convert patients’ medical records from paper to electronic files, said a national consumer medical privacy watchdog group.
The U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health voted last night to deny Americans the assurance of medical privacy in the markup of the “Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2005” (HR. 4157). The bill would "encourage the dissemination, security, confidentiality, and usefulness of health information technology".
In the Wednesday mark-up meeting Rep. Rahm Emanuel offered an amendment to add specific language to insure medical privacy and prohibit the improper use or disclosure of personally identifiable patient information. Key points were:
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Expressly recognize the individual’s right to privacy with respect to the electronic disclosure of identifiable health information
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Require a patient’s consent before releasing individually identifiable health information
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Allow patients to prohibit access to particularly sensitive information
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Provide for patient notification if their information has been lost, stolen, or used for unauthorized purpose
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Give patients the right to obtain damages for the improper use or disclosure of their information
The amendment was defeated by eight to five.
"Without these amendments, patients have no control over who sees and uses their medical records and are left vulnerable to companies that want to profit from patients’ health histories or discriminate based on people’s current and previous medical conditions,” said Deborah C. Peel, MD, Chairman, Patient Privacy Rights Foundation.
Peel emphasized Patient Privacy Rights’ support for moving paper medical records to electronic files to improve health care and reduce costs, but not until stronger privacy and security protections are in place.
“If the Veterans Administration can’t prevent the data theft of 26.5 million names, Social Security numbers, and diagnosis codes for their veterans, why should patients believe their personal, sensitive health data is any safer in electronic files?” Peel asked.
In April, Peel’s Patient Privacy Rights and 25 other organizations, representing constituencies across the political and ideological spectrum, urged the U.S. House of Representatives to build a patient-centered system with patient privacy rights at the core of any national health information technology legislation.
On May 24, 2006, the Patient Privacy Coalition, including the Christian Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Family Research Council and Consumer Action, urged Congress to include a number of privacy protections in legislation, including preserving stronger state law privacy protections already in place. (See complete list of privacy recommendations below.)
Peel said HIPAA had become a “disclosure rule” and was “toothless” since the adoption by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of a 2002 amendment to the privacy law, which permits over 800,000 health-related businesses and government agencies to access personal health information without patient knowledge or permission. The 2002 regulatory changes allows health care providers to share patient records with employers, drug and insurance companies, credit reporting agencies, accountants, banks, lawyers, and others without patient permission, and for business and other uses unrelated to healthcare treatment or payment.
“The federal government’s own watchdog, the GAO, has repeatedly told Congress that HHS and the VA do not have adequate security protections in place for the health information it handles for Medicare and Medicaid. Why should Americans trust an HIT network without the assurance of medical privacy,” said Peel.
The coalition recommended the following privacy protections:
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Recognize that patients own their health data
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Give patients control over who can access their personally identifiable health information across electronic health information networks
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Give patients the right to opt-in and opt-out of electronic systems
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Give patients the right to segment sensitive information
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Require audit trails of every disclosure of patient information and allow patients to review those disclosures
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Require that patients be notified of suspected or actual privacy breaches (The provisions in the Data Accountability and Trust Act should also apply to medical data.)
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Provide meaningful penalties and enforcement for privacy violations (Since February, 2005, over 52 million consumer records have been hacked.)
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Deny employers access to employees’ medical records
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Preserve stronger privacy protections in state laws (Ivo Nelson of IBM testified before an Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing in March that it would not be difficult to develop technology that follows individual state patient privacy laws in an interoperable national health data network.)
The organizations making signing the 5/24/06 letter are the following:
[Signatures as of 5/24/06, 8:30 am
American Association of Physicians and Surgeons
American Civil Liberties Union
Asian American Justice Center
Christian Coalition of America
Consumer Action
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Fairfax County Privacy Council
Family Research Council
Free Congress Foundation
Just Health (formerly California Consumer Health Care Council)
Liberty Coalition
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Health Law Program
Patient Privacy Rights Foundation
Privacy Activism
Privacy Rights Now
Private Citizen
Republican Liberty Caucus
Thoughtful House Center for Autism
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation
Elected Officials:
State Senator Karen S. Johnson, Legislative District 18, Arizona (Republican)
About Patient Privacy Rights
Patient Privacy Rights is a national consumer watchdog organization based in Austin, Texas. The mission of Patient Privacy Rights is to empower Americans to protect and preserve their human rights to medical privacy. Patient Privacy Rights believes Americans should have the right to decide who can see and use their medical records and is educating Americans about threats to patient privacy. They have launched an online petition for Americans to tell Congress “I Want My Medical Privacy”.
