|
|
Article: HHS issues new privacy rule. (Washington Report).(Department of Health and Human Services)
- Article from:
- Medical Laboratory Observer
- Article date:
- October 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The Department of Health and Human Services recently issued the final rule on protecting the confidentiality of patient medical records. As expected, it made some modifications to the regulation originally proposed by the Clinton administration.
While the recently issued regulation will provide a number of new privacy protections, it omits a requirement that a patient's written permission must be obtained before his or her personal health information can be handled by doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and insurance plans.
HHS says it had to make this change to "address the serious, unintended consequences of the rule that would have interfered with ...