"The Medical Records Confidentiality Act" (S. 1360) remains stalled as
Congress continues its summer recess. The Senate Labor and Human Resources
Committee indefinitely delayed mark-up of the bill due to opposition from a
number of industry groups.
Although S. 1360 (also known as the Bennett-Leahy bill) remains in limbo,
Congress did take some action that impacts medical records privacy. The
recently-passed Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HR 3103) contains a section known as
"Administrative Simplification." This section of the Act mandates the
development and adoption of standards for electronic exchanges of health
information. It also mandates that Congress or the Secretary of Health and
Human Services (HHS) develop privacy rules to govern such electronic
exchanges; however, these rules may not be in place before the electronic
system is implemented.
There are a number
of provisions in the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill that impact on individual privacy,
data confidentiality and security. Most importantly, the law mandates that
Congress enact privacy rules to protect health information within the next 36
months; and, if Congress fails to act, the law requires the Secretary of HHS
to promulgate final regulations establishing privacy rules within the
following six months.
While the passage of administrative simplification language without strong
statutory privacy protections included at the outset is disappointing and
threatens privacy, the recently enacted provisions set a privacy agenda in two
areas. It provides an opportunity to reinvigorate efforts in Congress to act
upon pending health information privacy legislation, and to work with the
Department of Health and Human Services to develop privacy regulations.
It is critical that supporters of the Bennett-Leahy bill and
similar legislative proposals seize this opportunity to move health privacy
legislation. It is imperative that privacy safeguards be in place prior to
the development or adoption of standards for electronic handling of health
information.
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