News Conference Statement on Medical Privacy

March 20, 2001

I have to admit, I am sorry we have to be here today. For the past ten years we have been fighting for the basic right of Americans to keep their medical records private.

Last December, we celebrated when President Clinton and Secretary Shalala announced the landmark medical privacy rules that, for the first time, would provide patients with federal protection of their personal health information. That was a milestone day for all Americans.

But here we are, back again. The fight we thought was over once again seems like the Energizer Bunny -- it keeps going, and going, and going.

Until this rule goes into effect, if you have a medical record, you have a privacy problem. The public plainly wants us to solve this. People do not want their families’ private health problems flying about unfettered on the Internet or peddled to the highest bidder. Without confidence that privacy rules are in place, many Americans will even choose not to seek necessary medical treatment.

Already, many Americans have been denied promotions or jobs because private medical information is given to employers.

Privacy should not be a partisan issue, and we have fought hard for many years to keep this a bipartisan effort. But the new administration will risk making this a partisan issue if it opens the bazaar to the special interests and lets them delay or weaken the medical privacy rule.

Today, I am pleased to join allies like Senator Kennedy, Congressman Markey and others in sending a letter to Secretary Tommy Thompson urging him to allow this medical privacy rule to go into effect on April 14, as planned. We are here to tell President Bush and Secretary Thompson that this regulation must go into effect – next month. No more delays, and no more backtracking. This is far too important.

Those interested in this rule had plenty of time to comment on the draft after it was issued last fall. HHS took ten months to review almost 52,000 comments before issuing the final rule.

When Congress passed HIPAA in 1996, we agreed that with the increased use of technology in health care, there had to be some basic privacy protections. That was the deal, and that was the promise. Either Congress was to pass a comprehensive law in three years, or HHS would issue rules to protect patient privacy.

Many of us here today worked tirelessly in trying to pass a comprehensive privacy law. But all we have seen in Congress is a saga of delay, missed deadlines, and special interest agendas pushed ahead of the public’s interest. Congress missed the deadline it set for itself in acting on comprehensive medical privacy legislation, and HHS picked up the ball, as Congress ordered.

There are a lot of myths about this rule. Some are saying that it needs some fine tuning, or that some sections need to be fixed. Make no mistake – that is not what the industry giants with money to burn are really trying to do. They are trying to kill the medical privacy rule, and they are trying to get the new Administration to pull the trigger. Delay has been the weapon of choice for those opposing meaningful privacy protections. Meanwhile, each new day without privacy guidelines is another day of the erosion of privacy. And each day that this rule is set aside, more special interests squeeze through the doorway to weaken it.

The medical privacy rule is not perfect – there are areas where the rule should be stronger, not weaker. The law still gives the Secretary authority to make some adjustments that are "necessary in order to permit compliance with the standard."

But killing the rule and leaving the medicals records of Americans vulnerable would be irresponsible.

Politicians have talked about privacy for too long. It is long past time for action, and no single privacy step is more important right now than implementing these long-overdue medical privacy protections for all Americans.