Final rule exempts data bank from Privacy Act
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Washington, DC, published a final rule on June 1 exempting the new system of records for the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB) from certain provisions of the Privacy Act. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 mandated a national data bank to provide a database of certain final adverse actions taken against health care providers. The effective date of the final rule was June 1. Final regulations for the HIPDB were published in October 1999, along with a proposed rule to exempt the new system from some Privacy Act requirements.
The exemption in this final rule applies to investigative materials compiled for law enforcement purposes, according to a review of the rule by the Joint Healthcare Information Technology Alliance in Washington, DC. The rule exempts the data bank from those provisions in the Privacy Act that protect from release to the subject of the record and information on law enforcement queries to the data bank and exempts the data bank from Privacy Act access and amendment procedures to establish access and amendment procedures contained in the HIPDB regulations.
Record subjects would be guaranteed access to and correction rights for substantive information reported to the HIPDB. The Privacy Act procedures use access and correction as a basis, while providing additional rights, according to the final rule. In addition, data bank subjects would have broader rights on HIPDB correction procedures, including the right to file a statement of disagreement as soon as a report is filed with the HIPDB.
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