Clinton Medical Records Privacy Proposal

Physician groups are apt to seize on two aspects of the Clintonmedical records privacy proposal, which came out at the end of October and is expected to be finalized in February. The proposal basically says that a patient’s “identifiable” information can be transferred from physician to insurance company to hospital and others in the health provider chain—without the patient’s consent—as long as the information is being used for medical treatment, billing, or health-related business operations. ASCO agrees with the first two purposes, but opposes an “expansive” definition of health care operations. The second key issue relates to the fact that the Clinton proposal simply sets a federal “floor.” State laws must be at least as protective, but they also can have more restrictive provisions. ASCO wants any federal standard to preempt all state laws. Contacted soon after the proposal was released, Julie Taylor at ASCO said the group is in the process of combing through the 600+ page proposal.