| The Harris poll reveals that Americans are very much concerned about
medical record privacy. The poll conducted by Prof. Alan Westin found
that 49 percent of all Americans are very concerned and 30 percent are
somewhat concerned by the threats to their personal privacy. An
additional 56 percent believe that strong federal protection of medical
records is necessary to accomplish health care reform. |
| The bill creates fair information practices for the collection and use
of personal medical information. It mandates that holders of health
information keep that information confidential unless there is
authorization for its release by the patient or other limited
exceptions. Each person who obtains private medical information becomes
a trustee. Patients will also have the right to access, and correct
their own personal files. |
| The health care reform proposal includes a strong code of fair
information practices, and an explicit prohibitions on the use of
medical record information for employment purposes. But the plan
leaves open the question of whether the Social Security Number might be
used as a patient identifier and also allows more than three years
before full legislative safeguards are established. |
| (h) A patient who no longer has a debilitating medical condition shall
return his or her registry identification card to the state health
agency within twenty-four hours of receiving such diagnosis by his or
her physician. |
| [1] Operation Root Canal Documents Released:
Questions Raised about FBIs Digital
Telephony Initiative
[2] GAO Report Criticizes Govt Crypto Policy
[3] Health Care Plan Raises Privacy Questions
[4] Hacker Sentenced to One Year Imprisonment
[5] Matching grant for CPSR FOIA Work Offered
[6] New Documents in the CPSR Internet Library
[7] Upcoming Conferences and Events |
