ACLU Releases Summary of Stimulus Law’s Medical Privacy Provisions
The ACLU has released a summary of the recently passed stimulus law’s (pdf) medical privacy provisions. (Here’s privacy consultant Bob Gellman’s evaluation of the medical privacy provisions.) From the ACLU’s summary:
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (hereafter ARRA). One of the many goals of the ARRA is to encourage the adoption of electronic medical records by doctors and hospitals. One of the most significant barriers to this process is the lack of powerful existing safeguards for patient information. [...]
Medical records privacy is currently protected pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (hereafter HIPAA). Unfortunately the HIPAA regulations contain numerous exceptions which allow for widespread access, sale and use of medical records. Patients have almost no control over how information is used, to whom it is disclosed or even the ability to learn about these disclosures after the fact.
If electronic medical records are to come into widespread use, these problems must be fixed. The protections contained in the ARRA begin that process by tying funds appropriated by the Act to a series of extensive privacy and information technology security conditions. The process will continue through an extensive regulatory process mandated by the Act and convened by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. [...]
Many of the provisions described below are important first steps; however they also contain exceptions, extended implementation dates and other loopholes. They could be significantly weakened or strengthened depending on the language of the final regulations implementing them.
Possibly related posts:
February 27th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
[...] View original here: ACLU Releases Summary of Stimulus Law’s Medical Privacy Provisions [...]