[Med-privacy] legislation

[peter marshall]

  On June 24, Representatives John Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the House=20=

Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Joe Barton (R-TX), Ranking Member=20=

of the Committee, introduced their health information technology bill,=20=

the =93Protecting Records, Optimizing Treatment, and Easing =
Communication=20
through Healthcare Technology Act of 2008 (PRO(TECH)T Act of 2008).=A0=20=

The updated bill incorporates comments from stakeholders and members of=20=

Congress who responded to the release of the draft legislation in May=20
(see Capital Communique, May 30, 2008).=A0 Provisions in the PRO(TECH)T=20=

Act require eligible health care providers who have received grants to=20=

purchase health information technology to provide notice to individuals=20=

in the event of a breach of their identifiable health information;=20
strengthen the enforcement of privacy requirements in the Health=20
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by explaining that=20=

criminal penalties for disclosing protected health information can be=20
applied to individuals as well as covered entities as defined in HIPAA;=20=

and requires health providers to obtain patients=92 consent to use or=20
disclose their protected health information for health related=20
activities, such as manually or electronically sending the information=20=

to others for quality review purposes.

[Natl. Health Law Program]=