Comment on the Bush Administration's Decision
to Implement Medical Privacy Rule

April 12, 2001

[Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is the author of the Medical Information Privacy and Security Act and held Congress’s first hearing (in 1994) on privacy concerns relating to electronic medical records. Leahy also chairs the Senate Democratic Task Force On Privacy. The final medical privacy rule, issued by the Clinton Administration on Dec. 20, was put on a 60-day hold when President Bush took office. Leahy had urged Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to allow the rule to go into effect as scheduled without further delay.]

I commend Secretary Thompson for allowing this medical privacy rule to go into effect.

We have worked for many years to ensure that our most sensitive medical records would be safeguarded by law. Now, patients themselves will finally have the right to decide who has access to their personal health information -- but we have not yet crossed the finish line.

Secretary Thompson, over the next 12 months, must follow through with this commitment to privacy rights and build upon this solid foundation. The Secretary should use his authority wisely and sparingly to modify this rule without undoing any existing privacy protections. The special interests are intent on gutting this rule, and we need to be watchful and vigilant in the critical months ahead on behalf of the public’s interest. Congress now must do its part to extend the reach of the rule, especially by providing patients the right to seek redress when their health records are misused.