Proposed Privacy Legislation

All three pending bills in the Senate have these common themes:

Require one-time authorization for treatment, payment, and health-care-operations-related disclosures. Allow patient to self-pay to avoid payment-related disclosures. Other disclosures require authorization separate from treatment and payment authorization. Allow disclosure without consent for emergency circumstances, public health purposes, health oversight, coroners, medical examiners, and next of kin. Allow some access by law enforcement officials; all require a warrant or grand jury subpoena and a showing of probable cause before a warrant may be issued.

Regulations offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

Presume consent for treatment and payment-related disclosures. Other disclosures require authorization separate from treatment and payment authorization. Allow disclosure without consent in emergency circumstance, for public health purposes, for state health data systems, next of kin. No warrants required for law enforcement; allow unrestricted access to individual records for legal purposes. Law enforcement officers are not subject to prohibitions on re-disclosure, except as provided by other laws.

Other Privacy Bills

In mid-May, Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill providing full Medicare drug coverage for five major conditions, including diabetes. House sponsors say 6.3 million Medicare beneficiaries suffer from diabetes. Beneficiaries would have to pay a $250 annual deductible and copayments of 20% for brand-name medications. There would be no copayments for generics. Lead sponsor of the bill, Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD) told Reuters-Health that the measure could save Medicare money by preventing hospitalizations and other costly complications. Also covered under the Medicare Chronic Disease Drug Benefit Act are hypertension, major depression, rheumatoid arthritis and congestive and ischemic heart disease.