[Med-privacy] Data Mining of Health Information by Financial Institutions

[pmarshall]

HPP, EPIC and 28 Other Major Organizations Sent Letter to Secretary
Thompson Opposing Data Mining of Health
Information by Financial Institutions

On September 10, the Health Privacy Project, the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, and 28 other health care advocacy,
labor, consumer, disability rights, and health care provider groups,
sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson, opposing any changes to the new medical privacy regulation
that would give a green light to banks and other financial
institutions to access sensitive, personal medical information.In our
letter, we state that the current medical privacy rule
prohibits financial institutions from accessing health information for
data mining purposes, but that we are aware that HHS is being
heavily lobbied by some in the financial services industry to rollback
this critical protection.HHS officials have stated that
they may act soon on this issue.

The full text of the letter is posted on our website.

[Health Privacy Project]