GOVERNMENTFederal health IT bill reignites debate on patient privacyPhysician groups and privacy advocates worry that without more safeguards, a health IT system could create new avenues for misuse of patient information.By Amy Snow Landa, amednews correspondent. Sept. 4, 2006. Congress appears poised to enact legislation this fall that would help spur the development of a nationwide electronic health information system. But physician groups and privacy advocates say lawmakers should not approve the bill unless they also strengthen privacy protections for patients' personal health information. Some doctors worry that current federal law leaves patients' electronic medical records exposed to inappropriate use and disclosure by hospitals, health insurers, employers and other entities. They say the health information technology legislation now making its way through Congress would increase that exposure exponentially unless stronger privacy protections are added to the bill. "If we don't fix who can control access to our sensitive medical information, all we'll be doing is building the mother lode of data mining," said Deborah Peel, MD, a psychiatrist in Austin, Texas, and chair of a privacy watchdog group called the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation. The foundation and 20 other organizations -- including the California Medical Assn. and the American Assn. of People with Disabilities -- sent a letter to House Republican and Democratic leaders in June urging them to include stronger privacy protections in the health IT legislation. The letter stated that numerous patients have been harmed and have faced discrimination because federal law does not adequately protect patients against inappropriate disclosure of personal health information. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2006 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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