On May 24, the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health voted 8-5 to approve a bill (H.R. 4157) that will likely be used to override your state medical-privacy rights. The sponsor of the bill is Republican Nancy Johnson from Connecticut.
The legislation empowers unelected bureaucrats from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to decide how much or how little privacy you can have.
If HHS decides to override your state medical-privacy rights, no state law or state lawmaker will be able to protect you from the politics of the Washington D.C. beltway and the lobbyists of health plans, government, and data corporations who want your private data at no cost and at their own discretion. Remember, these are the same folks who wrote the federal HIPAA "no privacy" rule that today lets health plans, law enforcement, public health officials and others access your entire medical record without your knowledge or consent UNLESS state law says otherwise.
This bill will allow HHS to prohibit your elected state representatives from writing strong medical privacy laws. Since it is going to become increasingly easy to share your health information electronically, our laws should be modernized to provide stronger˜not weaker˜privacy rights to meet citizens' demands for privacy in the information age. The bottom line is that unless legislation states clearly that you have the legal right to give or withhold your consent before your personal health information is accessed or shared, it cannot be considered a real privacy bill.
Note: To voice your own opinion on H.R. 4157, the Capitol Hill main phone number is (202) 225-3121.
By Twila Brase, RN, president of Citizens' Council on Health Care in St. Paul, MN (www.cchconline.org)