AMA, DMA Split on Proposed Medical Privacy Rules
The American Medial Association (AMA) spoke out against Clinton Administration proposed rules to keep electronic medical records away from employers and marketers at a hearing yesterday. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) had endorsed the proposed rules when they were unveiled last October by the President and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.
AMA Trustee Dr. William Plested said the proposed regulations fall short of actually protecting patient confidentiality and privacy, while imposing undue administrative burdens on doctors, He testified before the House Ways and Means health subcommittee chaired by Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA).
The proposed regulations, restricting the use and release of computerized personal health data, would require health care providers and health plans to: give patients a clear written explanation of how they use, keep, and maintain their medical data; obtain written permission before disclosing an individual’s medical records; allow patients to review and correct errors in their files; and restrict third-party access to that data. The rules, when finalized, are scheduled to take effect in 2002.
“Various parties in the health-delivery system, including researchers, hospitals and health plans all argue that they need patient-identifiable health information for purposes beyond direct treatment [and] most believe they don’t need explicit patient consent to get it,” Plested said.
The AMA believes that “an expressed need for information does not confer a right,” he said. “[I]nformed consent should be obtained, where possible, before any personally identifiable health information is used for any purpose.”
If, for any reason that consent cannot be obtained, he suggested that any information released should be carefully edited before release, or, alternatively, “an objective, publicly accountable entity” should determine what information should be released.
Tom Cigarran, president and CEO of Nashville, TN-based American Healthways, called for the panel to add a pre-emption clause to the rules “to ensure that state-specific privacy laws do not curtail disease-management efforts.” The firm provides specialized disease-management services to various national health plans.
