[Med-privacy] Robert Gellman on Texas attorney general and privacy

[Jeff Williams]

Deborah and all,

  If you will again pardon me and also again read the Atty. Gen.'s own
comments as they have seemingly been now twice confused...
See again:http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/or50abbott/ord-681.htm
and read very carefully:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/go/go0055200toc.html
you will begin to gather and understand that Robert Gellman's
comments and remarks were very accurate as were mine.

You may also consider contacting the Texas Atty.'s Gen.'s
office directly as I did...

 Hence it would seem many of your remarks below are
again misleading or inaccurate...  I am sure Atty. Gen.
Abbot will not take them very kindly and seek to set
the record straight...  He as you did accurately
remark, the citizens of Texas Atty.

DPeelMD@aol.com wrote:

>    Bob Gellman seems confused: the whole point of the TX AG's ruling
> is to give
> the media access to information about people in hospitals and
> emergency care
> WITHOUT their permission.
>
> That is what disturbs doctors and patients alike. And BTW--what
> happened to
> just asking patients what they want?
>
> Deborah Peel, MD
> President, www.patientprivacyrights.org
>
> Dr. Deborah C. Peel
> Patients hold ultimate right to decide privacy issue
> SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
> Friday, February 20, 2004
>
> If President Bush can block access to his military medical records,
> why can't
> the rest of us can't block access to our civilian hospital and
> emergency room
> records?
>
> Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott blew it when he ruled that the
> state's
> public information law trumps Texans' longstanding rights to consent
> to the
> release of their personal health information.
>
> Texas laws built on 2,000 years of medical ethics require that
> patients
> decide what is revealed about their medical care and to whom, not
> government
> officials. So why is Texas' top lawyer making that call for all of us?
>
> Why did he give the media the right to report on the medical condition
> of
> patients who have been injured or celebrities who land in the hospital
> without
> asking those people's permission? Could he really believe that media
> rights
> override patient rights?
>
> Somehow, our attorney general came to the bizarre conclusion that
> Texas'
> freedom of information laws are stronger than Texas' medical privacy
> laws. But
> state and federal courts, and even the U.S. Supreme Court, have always
> provided
> the strongest privacy protections of all for sensitive medical
> records.
>
> How did we get to this strange place?
>
> This whole mess started when gross misinterpretations of the federal
> medical
> privacy rules known as the Health Information Portability and
> Accountability
> Act (HIPAA) created confusion about how to protect patient privacy.
>
> By enacting the first national medical privacy law, the government
> gave every
> American the right to medical privacy. The government expected
> patients to
> have more control over their medical records as a result of HIPAA, not
> less. In
> fact, HIPAA states that more stringent privacy protective state laws
> and
> medical ethics should prevail over weaker standards in HIPAA. HIPAA
> was to be a
> floor for medical privacy.
>
> Hospital attorneys wrongly translated the federal HIPAA Privacy Rule
> into
> restrictive and bad hospital policies nobody wants. Stories of how
> heavy-handed
> the government was in dealing with fraud and abuse -- assessing such
> huge
> advance penalties that the alleged criminals were often forced to
> settle rather
> than risk litigation -- made hospital attorneys prone to "just say no"
> to
> requests for information from the press out of fear of violating
> HIPAA.
>
> The media, long used to being able to report details about car wrecks
> and
> shooting or crime victims, found that hospitals would no longer tell
> them much of
> anything. So they appealed to Abbott for access to our medical
> information.
> And he gave it to them.
>
> Abbott, the people's lawyer, should have insisted that patients be
> asked what
> they want, as required by Texas law and medical ethics. He should have
>
> insisted that hospitals and the media ask patients permission to
> release
> information. Most of us would be happy to give it.
>
> The "right to be let alone" by the state and to choose who knows our
> most
> personal information is really the right to liberty and the foundation
> of all
> human and civil rights.
>
> In the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, "the right
> to be
> let alone -- (is)the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most
> valued by
> civilized men." Brandeis saw the framers of the U.S. Constitution as
> protecting the privacy and sensibilities of the single person against
> the state, as a
> part of "the more general right to the immunity of the person --the
> right to
> one's personality."
>
> We need privacy to be free. We desire to be known only to those we
> choose for
> ourselves.
>
> The Texas attorney general should guarantee that we are let alone by
> making
> sure we are asked if we want privacy when we are sick or injured.
>
> Peel is an Austin psychoanalyst. She is president of the Appeal for
> Patient
> Privacy (www.patientprivacyrights.org).
>
> Find this article at:
> http://www.statesman.
> om/opinion/content/auto/epaper/editions/friday/editorial
> _0453eb0be148d1cc0089.html
>

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
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