ACLU on proposed med-privacy regs.

[Peter Marshall <techdiff@ix.netcom.com>]

October 29, 1999

> Medical Privacy
> 
> In a nationally televised speech today, President Clinton unveiled a new
> set of proposed regulations to protect the privacy of Americans' medical
> records.  This proposal for the first-ever national standards came as a
> result of a 1996 medical insurance portability bill, which mandated that
> the Congress come up with recommendations for medical records privacy by
> August of 1999.  When Congress failed to meet its own deadline, it fell on
> the administration to produce privacy regulations.
> 
> There will now be a two-month comment period in which it is crucial that
> the President and Congress hear public support for medical privacy. While
> the ACLU is applauding the Presidentıs overall effort, there are a number
> of provisions in his proposal that we believe should be improved, including
> the need to create a provision that prohibits the police from obtaining
> medical records without a search warrant, similar to current privacy laws
> that apply to the home.

> In the meantime, you can read the Presidentıs statement on his regulations
> at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/19991029.html  And you can read
> the ACLU press release on this issue at:
> http://www.aclu.org/news/1999/n102999a.html