May 2001 News Archives

May 31, 2001 HIPAA Delay Bill Introduced in House Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) introduced a bill to delay HIPAA compliance dates in the House yesterday. The legislation sets Oct. 16, 2004 as the uniform compliance date, or 24 months after all final rules are published. The bill, H.R. 1975, is similar to the one introduced by Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) which remains in committee. Read HR 1975.

May 29, 2001 Bill to Delay HIPAA Still in Committee According to Health Data Management, efforts on May 25 to bring HIPAA legislation to the Senate floor for an immediate vote failed and the bill remains in the Finance Committee. Aides to Sen. Craig (R-ID) were working on May 25 to bring the bill, S. 836, to the floor under an “unanimous consent” motion. However, committee staff received objections from AEHCT and Craig never made the motion on the floor. D'Arcy Gue, executive vice president of Phoenix Health Systems, is quoted as saying May 25 may have been the last chance for proponents of the legislation to get the bill to the floor without committee action. Full Story.

May 29, 2001 Democratic Senate Could Help Privacy Law, Observers Say The U.S. Senate will be more likely to take a favorable view of privacy legislation when it comes under Democratic control, privacy advocates and observers said Friday. Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords split with the Republican Party Thursday, handing control of the Senate to the Democrats. Several Democrats assuming key leadership posts have shown an interest in the privacy issue in the past. Read more: Reuters Article, NewsFactor Article.

May 25, 2001 Shopping Cart Software Flaw Exposes Health Site Customer Information A flaw in PDG shopping cart software exposed the names, addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of people who obtained free drug and alcohol addiction pamphlets from Health.org. Although NIPC issued a warning about the software problem in early April and the software company has attempted to contact all of its customers, the technical department director at the company that maintains the site for DHHS said he never received a notice.
Full Story.

May 23, 2001 Representatives May Try to Overturn HIPAA Privacy House Ways & Means Committee Chair Rep. Thomas is considering pushing for legislation to overturn the medical privacy rule authorized under HIPAA, according to a report in Health Data Management. Thomas and Ways & Means health subcommittee Chair Rep. Johnson recently sent a letter to President Bush outlining several concerns with the rule. HHS Sec. Thompson has said federal officials soon will issue guidelines to clarify contentious issues in the rule.
Full Story.

May 23, 2001 AFEHCT Challenges Blues' Report on Cost of HIPAA Transactions The Association for Electronic Health Care Transactions (AFEHCT) has published an annotated version of the recent Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association report, "Provider Cost of Complying with Standardized Electronic Formats." In the annotations, AFEHCT challenges the conclusion that a delay for compliance is required. Full Story.

May 23, 2001 DHHS Lacks Staff Key positions in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are unfilled due to the lengthy appointment process, according to a report in the Boston Herald. At Boston College commencement ceremonies yesterday, Sec. Thompson expressed frustration with the process, the paper stated.

May 22, 2001 Many Hospitals Not Ready for HIPAA According to a report in Health Forum, 57% of hospitals responding to a recent AHA member survey said they are on track to meet the Oct. 16, 2002, HIPAA transactions deadline. The survey showed hospitals have taken a number of general steps to prepare for the compliance deadline, but fewer have engaged in more specific actions related to implementation and compliance. Full Story.

May 17, 2001 Medicare May Not Meet HIPAA Deadline for Transactions. According to a report in Health Data Management, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is not as confident of meeting the October 16, 2002 deadline as it was earlier this year. Full Story.

May 16, 2001 Armey Questions Sec. Thompson about HHS Guidelines on Medical ID Numbers House Majority Leader Dick Armey wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson asking him to determine whether HHS has been pursuing a universal medical ID number, which is prohibited by law.
Full Story.

May 16, 2001 News Media Concerned about HIPAA Privacy Rule The condition of school shooting victims or details on injuries from defective products are some of the news reports that could be hindered by new medical privacy rules, critics of the rules say. Editors and publishers fear potential fines and jail time will drive health officials to restrict previously routine patient disclosures.
Full Story.

May 14, 2001 Key House Republicans Urge Changes to HIPAA Privacy Last week, two key Representatives sent a letter to President Bush urging that changes be made in the final HIPAA Privacy rule to ensure a balance between patient's privacy rights and "legitimate" health care needs. Full Story.

May 14, 2001 HIPAA Privacy Changes Expected Soon According to a report in Health Data Management, DHHS expects to publish a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to provide additional guidance to the HIPAA Privacy Rule later this year. Also expected is a NPRM to remove the NDC code mandate from the Transactions Rule. Full Story.

May 10, 2001 "Citizens' Privacy Commission Act" Bill Introduced Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Thompson and Senator Kohl introduced the "Citizens' Privacy Commission Act" (S.851), a bill to establish an 11-member commission to examine how federal, state, and local governments collect and use our personal information, and to make recommendations to Congress on how to map out government privacy protections for the future.
Full Story.

May 9, 2001 HIPAA Delay Legislation Introduced Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) introduced a plan today that will delay final implementation of HIPAA until Oct 16, 2004. Full Story.

May 9, 2001 Internet Industry Attacks Privacy Legislation Two industry-backed organizations on Tuesday attacked government efforts to create online privacy protections as costly, knee-jerk reactions to faulty public opinion polls. Full Story.

May 8, 2001 Curb on Sale of Consumer Data Upheld In a victory for privacy advocates, a federal judge has upheld a proposed government regulation that would effectively end the long-standing practice by credit bureaus of selling consumers' names, addresses and Social Security numbers to marketers, information brokers and others. Full Story.

May 7, 2001 Discussion of X12N Modifications Opens X12N has established an online conference discussion for Addendums (modifications) to the current X12N HIPAA Implementation Guides. Change requests were submitted to the Change Request System established by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Data Standards Maintenance Organizations (DSMO). Full Story.

May 3, 2001 Rep. Armey Urges HSS Sec. Thompson to "Fix" HIPAA Privacy House Majority Leader Armey wrote to HHS Secretary Thompson yesterday, urging specific changes to the controversial HIPAA regulations recently finalized by the department. According to Armey's letter, though the regulations are intended to increase privacy protection for medical records, one provision would actually undermine that goal by giving the government unprecedented access to sensitive medical records. Full Story.

May 3, 2001 Representatives Prepare to Pressure DHHS on Privacy Members of Congress are circulating a letter, urging HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson to fix the HIPAA privacy rule and support additional funds to help hospitals comply. According to the American Hospital Association (AHA), 26 House members have signed the letter. Full Story.

May 2, 2001 Gartner Survey Reveals Most HCOs Unlikely to Meet HIPAA Compliance Deadlines; Says Effective One-Year Delay Is Needed With less than 18 months remaining until the compliance deadline for the HIPAA transaction regulations, most healthcare organizations (HCOs) have not completed assessments of their current environments and risks, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Without an effective delay, HCOs must aggressively begin compliance efforts within the next three months or miss the deadline and risk incurring high penalties and financial damage. Full Story.

May 2, 2001 First Medical Privacy Rule Guideline to Address Several Issues HHS Secretary Thompson soon will issue the first guideline to the medical privacy rule. According to an HHS source, the guideline will clarify several provisions in the rule, such as the right of family members or friends to pick up a person’s prescription. The guideline likely also will address concerns regarding oral communications, patient consent provisions and the “minimum necessary” disclosure of information, among other issues. Full Story.

May 2, 2001 NCPA Policy Report on Information Sharing and Health Care Historically, medical ethics have respected patients' need for confidentiality while authorities have sought the disclosure of certain contagious illnesses to preserve public health. The last several decades have seen major changes in the practice of medicine, such as computerization. The latest major development in this area was in 1996, when HIPAA called for the creation of a controversial national medical database, in which each patient would have a unique medical identifier like a Social Security number. To ease concerns about security and privacy, the legislation stipulated that HHS protect this health information. Out of this change come the new HIPAA rules for medical privacy. Full Story.

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