NCPR on proposed rules

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

As you know, President Clinton has vowed to protect our medical records.
But after reading the 630 pages of proposed regulations designed to do
this, we feel that the new rules will give us even less privacy than we
have now.

National CPR urges you to review the proposed regulations and comment on
them as soon as possible. (See http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/admnsimp to read the
regs; comment on line at
http://erm.aspe.hhs.gov/ora_web/plsqlerm_rule.library). The deadline for
comments has been extended to Feb. 17....

National CPR helped to derail implementation of national Patient I.D.
numbers and to remove anti-privacy provisions from the historic
financial-services legislation enacted by Congress....

Tell the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that regulations that
are truly protective of patient privacy and confidentiality must:
 * Not pre-empt stronger state medical-privacy laws. 
* Require non-coerced patient consent for uses/disclosures of protected
health information.  
* Allow patients to decline disclosures for payments and health care
operations if they pay for the care themselves.
* Allow patients to decline to use a National Patient Identifier or to have
their records entered into a linked electronic data system. 
* Retain and strengthen protection for psychotherapy notes.

Margo Goldman, M.D.

Director of Policy Development

National CPR