May 10 Workshop on Medical Privacy

[James Love <love@tap.org>]

                Workshop on Medical Records Privacy

                          CO-SPONSORED BY:

                   American Civil Liberties Union
                   Consumer Project on Technology
           Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
                   Coalition for Patient Rights 
             Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
                      JRI Health Law Center 

               Friday, May 10, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
                    The Carnegie Institution
                1530 P Street, NW, Washington, DC
 
The U.S. Senate is considering legislation that would pre-empt 
most state laws on health care privacy, and create a new federal 
system regulating access to medical records.  The proposed 
legislation, S. 1360 is controversial. 

Many privacy groups say that S. 1360 provides far too much access 
to personally identified medical records by insurance companies, 
employers, schools, medical researchers, public health and law 
enforcement officials.  These groups say that technology has 
outpaced policy, that the legislation fails to address the 
radical changes in the way records are stored and disseminated, 
and that the proposed legislation does more to promote access to 
records than to assure patients that their medical records will 
be private.

Supporters of S. 1360 claim that the legislation strikes a 
balance between the needs of industry and government and the 
patient's rights to privacy, and that extensive third party 
access to personal medical records is both inevitable and 
socially desirable.

The May 10 workshop features experts from a number of fields, and 
tackles some of the most thorny controversies.


9:00 am	  Who really controls access to medical records?  What is 
          coercive consent?  What proposals would enhance patient 
          control over access to records?  

Lawrence Gostin, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law
     Center and Professor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins
     University School of Hygiene and Public Health.  Editor of
     JAMA's section on Health Law and Ethics, and former Chair
     of President Clinton's Health Care Task Force group on 
     Privacy and the Health Care Infrastructure.

Mark Rothstein, Hugh Roy and Lille Cranz Cullen Distinguished
     Professor of Law and Director of the Health Law and Policy
     Institute at the University of Houston.  Author of The
     Genome and the Future of Health Care,  and consultant to 
     several federal agencies.

Anthony Kraus.  Mr. Kraus is a principal with the firm of Miles
     & Stockbridge, a litigator of invasion of privacy suits, 
     and is active in efforts to preserve medical privacy.

10:30 am    Non-consensual Access to Medical Records by Civil 
            Litigants, Law Enforcement and Other Government 
            Oversight Officials

Moderator, David Banisar.  Policy Analyst, Electronic Privacy 
     Information Center (EPIC), Deputy Director of Privacy 
     International, Editor of Privacy Bulletin.

Don Haines, Attorney,  American Civil Liberties Union.

Andrew Grosso, formerly the head of the first joint federal and 
     state health care fraud task force.  Vice Chair of the ABA 
     Criminal Justice Section's Committee on Science and 
     Technology, member of Association for Computing's 
     Committee on U.S. Pubic Policy (USACM). 

A.G. Breitensten, Director of the JRI Health Law Institute 
     (HLI), Attorney with the JRI Health Law Center in
     Boston, Massachusetts. HLI represents over 20 AIDS
     service Organizations in the Boston area who are suing 
     the Inspector general of Health and Human Services
     regarding the Inspector General's claimed right
     to access and disclose the identities of people receiving 
     AIDS services from federally funded organizations. 


Noon to 1:30 p.m.	Lunch.  


1:30 p.m.	Management of Medical Records.  What types of 
                security are desirable and feasible in computerized 
                health care information systems?

Professor Ross Anderson.  Faculty member at Cambridge 
     University Computer Laboratory and Security Adviser to the 
     British Medical Association.  Professor Anderson is a well 
     known specialist in cyptography and computer security who 
     has developed a security policy model for medical records. 

Professor James Fackler.  Professor of Anesthesia and
     Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Associate Director 
     of Children's  Hospital Informatics Program.  Professor 
     Fackler's research includes explorations of the use of the 
     world-wide-web technologies for medical record 
     integration, and systems and policies for protecting 
     patient privacy.


3:00 p.m.     Privacy of Mental Health records.  State Efforts 
              to Collect Medical Data.

Denise Nagel, MD.  Psychiatrist in private practice, President 
     of the Coalition for Patient Rights of New England, Chair 
     of Medical Privacy Confidentially Project, Coalition for 
     Patient Rights, Chair of the Medical Privacy Coalition.

Mimi Azrael, Attorney in Private Practice with the firm Azrael, 
     Gann and Franz.  A specialist in state laws concerning 
     medical records privacy.

Version 1.0


REGISTRATION

Registration isn't required, but it is appreciated (it helps us 
plan).  To register, please send a note to:

Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
Voice: 202/387-8030; Fax 202/234-5176
Internet:  mress@essential.org

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