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Comment of Senator Patrick Leahy
On The President’s Proposal
To Weaken Standards For Medical Privacy
[Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), along with Senators Edward
Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), sent a letter to the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenting on the Bush
Administration’s proposed modifications to the Standards for Privacy
of Individually Identifiable Health Information ("Privacy Rule"). Sen.
Leahy authored the Medical Information Privacy and Security Act
(S.573) in 1999 and held Congress’s first hearing (in 1994) on privacy
concerns relating to electronic medical records. The final rule on the
privacy of personally identifiable medical information went into
effect in April 2001 and the Bush Administration published proposed
changes to the final rule on March 27, 2002, in the Federal Register.]
"Privacy is a fundamental personal right," said Senator Patrick
Leahy, who introduced legislation last Congress offering widespread
medical record protections for consumers. "Requiring patient consent
must be the cornerstone of any strong medical privacy protection.
Patients also should know that their personal medical information will
not be available to the highest bidder for marketing purposes.
"If allowed to go into effect, these proposed changes would be a
giant step backward for the advancement of patients’ rights. I hope
the Administration will instead take a step forward and not weaken
these fundamental patient protections."
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Click Here for Text of Letter
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