Rhode Island Insurance

Donna E. Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, urged Congress today to bring the overall federal standards for protecting the confidentiality of medical records. But she said the legislature can not nicht”mit the established procedures of criminal justice is resolved.”

In a report sent to Congress, she said intelligence and law enforcement, patients should have access to records, without further restrictions. The proposed exemption for the secret services was, in his report at the last minute, spurred on by intelligence officials.

Dr. Shalala said that its proposals would not be police wider access to medical records, but merely codify current practices that are not by federal law.

Senators peppered the Secretary-General, questions indicating that its recommendations would not be enough the protection of privacy and would not fully reassure patients worried about the abuse of its medical data in the computer age.

A Dr. Shalala said,”With very few exceptions, health, information on consumers should be disclosed for purposes of public health and health.”Répressifs need access to records fight against fraud, she said.

The proposal provides for health care providers and pay for health care would be expressly authorized medical information confidential at the request of an intelligence official said le”ont been given for a legitimate purpose .”

Intelligence”offizielle”ist broadly, as in the National Security Act, that officials throughout the community”,” Intelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, armed forces and the departments of Justice, State and Treasury.

Dr. Shalala, wanted the hotel civil and criminal penalties for abuse of medical records. But Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, said the administration has not yet been clearly defined by the abuse criminal prosecution authorities.

Senator Tim Hutchinson, Republican of Arkansas, asked why the hotel to offer less protection of privacy for medical records, as is already under federal law for records of banks, television cable, video rental stores and e-mail users.

Dr. Shalala replied:”He is currently the law in force. We are not changing the current legislation on access by law enforcement.”

The consultation proposed today, it would be difficult for Congress to a compromise acceptable to all those who want to use or protection of medical data. Insurance companies, for example, proposals could be more difficult for them to obtain medical information for the payment of claims for auto insurance and workers’ compensation.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Psychiatric Association, said the proposals did not go far enough.

”It is divided in the opinion of the hotel, and just now forces anti-privacy win in the crucial issue of access by authorities for criminal prosecution of medical records,’’said Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Leahy, a former prosecutor in Vermont, said he understood the need for access to books, including medical records, for studies of failure. But he said the administration sein””Rückhalt away from his previous preparation, new restrictions on access by law enforcement.