Before conference, this bill included a section #351 – "Confidentiality of Health and Medical Information" which was very controversial because it allowed disclosure of health information between "business partners". This bill allowed financial institutions to form relationships with a variety of "business partners" including but not limited to health care insurance carriers. This entire section has been removed from the final bill. It was determined that health and medical information privacy and confidentiality issues were to be best handled in a more comprehensive way and that S.900 should not address this.
Meanwhile the Department of Health and Human Services has issued proposed regulations regarding privacy and confidentiality that apply to data that is electronically transmitted or stored, as specified by HIPAA enacted in 1996. See http://www.hhs.gov/ Comments will be solicited through January 3, 2000. NASW national will study the document and make comments accordingly. Stay tuned for information that will be sent your way.
There is still need to address the Privacy and Confidentiality of all health and medical information legislatively. Hopefully Congress will move on this legislatively after the first of the year.