Provisions to strengthen privacy protections for patients will be added to the long-stalled Wired for Health Care Quality Act in the Senate under an agreement between the sponsors and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Leahy’s concerns about the security and privacy of health records had held up Senate action on the bill, the major health information technology bill in Congress this year. Observers now expect the Senate to pass it this year, but they remain doubtful that the House will act on a companion bill.
Privacy provisions proposed by Leahy will be incorporated into a substitute bill that Kennedy and Enzi are expected to offer, perhaps next week. The Leahy-authored language would:
• Eliminate what Leahy called a loophole in the original bill that would have allowed operators of personal health information databases to give sensitive health records to virtually anyone under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule.
• Ban certain health care providers from using or disclosing health records for marketing purposes.
• Direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a report to Congress recommending privacy and security protections for personal health records.
• Give patients the right to inspect their e-health records and receive electronic copies of the records. Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, individuals have a right to see their medical records, but there is no clear right to electronic ones.
• Strengthen congressional oversight over federal health privacy compliance and enforcement of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
The Wired for Health Care Quality Act was introduced in the Senate June 26, 2007, by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Michael Enzi (R-Colo.), chairman and ranking minority member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The committee approved the bill the following day.
But the bill has languished since, reportedly blocked by Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Kennedy, Enzi and Leahy staff members worked to craft the compromise on privacy.
“We have worked for months to secure stronger privacy protections in the Wired Act,” Leahy said in a statement. “I thank Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Enzi for their willingness to address these important issues. No information is more personal than an individual’s health records.”
“I believe this compromise is a great step forward,” said David Roberts, vice president of government relations at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. But, Roberts added, “it’s going to take some strong political will to get a bill passed this year.”
Leahy’s additions to the Wired Act have the support of numerous privacy and consumer organizations, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, Microsoft, AARP and Consumers Union, a Leahy news release said.
Leahy said Kennedy will work with him on a Judiciary Committee hearing on health privacy to be held in June.
From the battlefield to the home front: Managing medical data
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