Privacy Experts Comment on Privacy Decision in NPR Forum

04/12/2001
Excerpted from National Public Radio: All Things Considered
Copyright 2001 National Public Radio, Inc.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: The Bush administration announced today it will implement without further delay controversial rules to protect the privacy of medical information. The regulations, originally issued in December by the Clinton administration, have been on hold for the past two months while privacy advocates and the health industry argued over their fate. NPR's Julie Rovner reports.

JULIE ROVNER reporting:

The medical privacy rules represent the first federal effort to protect the confidentiality of personal medical information. Among other things, they give consumers the right to see their own medical records and to restrict who else can access that information. The administration's decision to proceed with the rules is a major victory for privacy advocates like Janlori Goldman of the Georgetown University Health Privacy Project.

Ms. JANLORI GOLDMAN (Georgetown University Health Privacy Project): We are very pleased that the Bush administration is going to let the privacy regulation go into effect, and we are delighted that they did not cave to the intense industry pressure to delay and weaken this rule.

ROVNER: A procedural mistake by the Clinton administration forced a delay in the effective date of the regulations from February 26th to this coming Saturday. But new Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson reopened them for additional comments after health industry officials complained that in their current form they were unworkable and could actually harm patient care. As recently as Monday, Thompson hinted that a further delay was likely, to give officials time to sort through the more than 24,000 comments the department received. But this morning, both Thompson and Bush issued written statements saying the rules will become effective as scheduled. Scott McClellan is the Bush administration's deputy press secretary.

Mr. SCOTT McCLELLAN (Bush Administration Deputy Press Secretary): We consulted closely with Secretary Thompson on this decision, and Secretary Thompson agrees with President Bush that we need to move forward now on these important protections so that Americans can have confidence that their personal medical records will remain private.

ROVNER: But letting the rules take effect does not signal the end of the fight. Both the written statements and administration spokesman McClellan made that clear.

Mr. McCLELLAN: Legitimate concerns have been raised about the current rule, and the president shares the concerns about making sure that the quality of health care for Americans remains the best in the world.

ROVNER: In fact, the administration has suggested that it might well entertain substantial changes to the rules during the two years health providers now have to bring their systems into compliance. That's something the industry is counting on, says Mary Grealy. She's president of the Healthcare Leadership Council, which represents hospital, pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

Ms. MARY GREALY (President, Healthcare Leadership Council): I think the administration has moved to reassure the public that this rule will go into effect, but they've also moved to reassure those that have to deliver patient care that they understand that there are flaws and that they will also make those corrections and fix the regulation before the end of that compliance period.

ROVNER: And some of those changes could be controversial. Among the changes suggested by the president in his statement is one that would give parents the right to access their children's medical information. Goldman of Georgetown University says the rules currently seek to skirt that sensitive issue by allowing state laws to determine what is private and what isn't.

Ms. GOLDMAN: But the conservative right sees an opportunity with this administration to come in and say, `Let us ensure that all parents have access to information, even where minors are seeking access to reproductive health services or mental health services or testing for sexually transmitted diseases,' where states currently give minors special protection to encourage them to come in for care.

ROVNER: Ironically, it was, in part, the fight over how to handle medical information regarding minors that prevented Congress from passing its own medical privacy law in 1999, and it was Congress' failure to meet that '99 deadline that triggered the requirement for the Clinton administration to act instead. So while the clock now starts to tick on the privacy rules, the fight will clearly continue.