July 26, 2006
Federal Legislation Threatens Health Care Privacy
Health Information Technology (HIT) legislation (H.R. 4157) is expected to reach the House floor this Thursday, July 27th. The bill is opposed by NASW because it would require establishment of national standards for a network of electronic interoperable patient health data for all U.S. residents without providing new federal rights for personal health privacy. The Administration supports this legislation creating a national interoperable system for storing and sharing electronic medical records. The Administration and its congressional proponents hope the new system will reduce medical errors, improve communication among health providers and cut health costs significantly over the long term.
THE ISSUE AT HAND
In a hotly contested provision, H.R. 4157 does not alter current federal health privacy law under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects stronger state and local privacy laws. Preemption of stronger state and local privacy law and regulations could have greatly weakened current health privacy protections and was strongly opposed by NASW. Although the preemption provision was recently dropped from the House bill, NASW still opposes the bill because it promotes the development of a nationally interoperable medical record database without creating new federal law to protect patient privacy. The Senate passed a different HIT bill last year (S. 418) that also maintains current HIPAA protection of stronger state and local privacy law, but unlike the House bill, it includes significant funding for small providers to purchase and adopt HIT systems. If the House passes H.R. 4157 this week, NASW expects the House and Senate to reach a conference agreement on the bill during September, after the August congressional recess.
The issue of health information privacy has become a hot button congressional issue for social workers. H.R. 4157 includes language mandating the Secretary of Health and Human Services to study the replacement and preemption of state health privacy laws with a new federal privacy law that would be authorized by Congress in subsequent legislation. Many states now have health privacy protections more protective than the current federal HIPAA privacy standards, but proponents of HIT believe these uneven state and local privacy requirements impede the development of a national HIT network.
NASW places major priority on the protection of social worker-patient confidentiality and privilege laws. With Congress considering the preemption of state and local privacy laws, it is now critical to shift NASW member advocacy toward a new federal privacy law that will protect patient/therapist confidentiality as well as ensure patient privacy. NASW believes the Administration’s HIT initiative will greatly expand the risk of large scale health data breaches due to the creation of a vast electronic network to distribute highly confidential patient information in an interoperable format. NASW believes this threat will affect millions of residents, and federal law must be strengthened to recognize more explicit and protective standards for personal health information.
ACTION NEEDED
NASW urges the House to amend H.R. 4157 because it fails to provide adequate personal health privacy standards for the Administration’s national HIT program. An amendment, strongly supported by NASW, will be offered by Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) that would add privacy requirements to the bill. Without the Markey Amendment’s federal health privacy standards, the federal HIT initiative will jeopardize the privacy and confidentiality of patient records. GOP leaders plan to consider H.R. 4157 on the House floor on Thursday, July 27th. All NASW members are urged to email or call their Representative immediately to support the Markey privacy amendment to H.R. 4157 and oppose final passage of the bill without this amendment.
Contact your House Representative to voice your support for the Markey privacy amendment to H.R. 4157. Below and on NASW’s webpage is a message to be sent to your Representative urging them to support Markey privacy language on H.R. 4157. You may also call your Representative through the Capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121.
Link to a sample letter: Health Privacy Letter
Script for a message to your Representative:
Dear Rep. ____:
As a constituent, social worker, and member of the National Association of Social Workers, I urge your support for the Markey privacy amendment to H.R. 4157, the “Health Information Technology Promotion Act.” Unless H.R. 4157 is amended, it will jeopardize the privacy and confidentiality of personal health information. Everyday with growing frequency, the media report on privacy breaches of enormous and supposedly well-protected health and financial data networks. Rather than help secure Americans’ personal health information, H.R. 4157 would do nothing to protect patients’ privacy, while greatly expanding the risk of large-scale data breaches.
As a professional social worker, I am extremely concerned about protecting patient rights to health care privacy. I believe the federal government must not promote health care information technology networks that would undermine patients’ rights to health information privacy. Without consumer confidence in the privacy of personal health information, quality health care cannot be provided. Thank you for your consideration.
THANKS FOR YOUR ADVOCACY! |
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