[Med-privacy] Congress

[peter marshall]

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  LOBBYING WAR ENSUES OVER DIGITAL HEALTH DATA
  [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
  The Senate and House appear headed for a clash over competing visions 
of how to protect the privacy of patients' electronic medical records, 
with the House favoring strict protections advocated by consumer groups 
while the Senate is poised to endorse more limited safeguards urged by 
business interests. President Obama has called creation of a nationwide 
system of electronic medical records fundamental to health-care reform, 
and both chambers of Congress have included about $20 billion to 
jump-start the initiative as part of their stimulus bills. But as with 
much in the stimulus package, it is not just the money but the 
accompanying provisions that groups are trying to influence. The effort 
to speed adoption of health information technology has become the focus 
of an intense lobbying battle fueled by health-care and drug-industry 
interests that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying 
and tens of millions more on campaign contributions over the past two 
years, much of it shifting to the Democrats since they took control of 
Congress. At the heart of the debate is how to strike a balance between 
protecting patient privacy and expanding the health industry's access 
to vast and growing databases of information on the health status and 
medical care of every American. Insurers and providers say the House's 
proposed protections would hobble efforts to improve the quality and 
efficiency of health care, but privacy advocates fear that the industry 
would use the personal data to discriminate against patients in 
employment and health care as well as to market the information, often 
through third parties, to generate profits.
http://benton.org/node/21851
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<fontfamily><param>Verdana</param> LOBBYING WAR ENSUES OVER DIGITAL
HEALTH DATA

 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]

 The Senate and House appear headed for a clash over competing visions
of how to protect the privacy of patients' electronic medical records,
with the House favoring strict protections advocated by consumer
groups while the Senate is poised to endorse more limited safeguards
urged by business interests. President Obama has called creation of a
nationwide system of electronic medical records fundamental to
health-care reform, and both chambers of Congress have included about
$20 billion to jump-start the initiative as part of their stimulus
bills. But as with much in the stimulus package, it is not just the
money but the accompanying provisions that groups are trying to
influence. The effort to speed adoption of health information
technology has become the focus of an intense lobbying battle fueled
by health-care and drug-industry interests that have spent hundreds of
millions of dollars on lobbying and tens of millions more on campaign
contributions over the past two years, much of it shifting to the
Democrats since they took control of Congress. At the heart of the
debate is how to strike a balance between protecting patient privacy
and expanding the health industry's access to vast and growing
databases of information on the health status and medical care of
every American. Insurers and providers say the House's proposed
protections would hobble efforts to improve the quality and efficiency
of health care, but privacy advocates fear that the industry would use
the personal data to discriminate against patients in employment and
health care as well as to market the information, often through third
parties, to generate profits.

<color><param>0000,0000,EEEE</param>http://benton.org/node/21851</color></fontfamily>
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