Congress to reauthorize FBI access to records as part of Patriot Act

Both chambers have passed bills renewing a requirement that physicians hand over patient records to the FBI upon request, and without telling the patient.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews correspondent. Sept. 12, 2005.

The House and Senate passed legislation in late July that would reauthorize sections of the USA Patriot Act that were set to expire at year's end, including a provision allowing the FBI to search confidential medical records during counterterrorism investigations.

Both the House and Senate bills would extend and modify key provisions of the federal antiterrorism law that Congress passed in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A House-Senate conference committee is expected to meet this fall to work out differences between the bills.

Despite some differences, both versions would renew a controversial provision that allows the FBI to conduct secret searches of private records, including library records, bookstore receipts and patients' medical records.

Physician groups have expressed concern that the Patriot Act as it is currently written does not ensure sufficient patient confidentiality protections and could undermine the integrity of the physician-patient relationship. Psychiatrists in particular are worried about the law's "gag order," which prohibits doctors from telling patients when the FBI searches their medical records as part of a counterterrorism or counterintelligence investigation. Neither the House nor the Senate bill would lift the gag order, so it remains a top concern among psychiatrists and other physicians.

"We see this as a major breach in the doctor-patient relationship," said Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, the American Psychiatric Assn. president.