Privacy Rules Threatened - Urgent Action Alert

Subj: Urgent Action Alert
Date: 3/6/01 1:36:51 PM Pacific Standard Time

URGENT ACTION ALERT!

PRIVACY RULES THREATENED;

ACTION NEEDED NOW!

Your help is urgently needed to protect the privacy of medical information, including mental health records.

On February 23, 2001, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson announced plans to review the new federal health privacy regulation, issued by the Clinton Administration in December.

Click here to see the Bazelon Center analysis of the rule.

Members of the health care industry have pressured the Secretary to delay and weaken the regulation and it has been opened up for a further 30-day period of public comment.

PLEASE ACT NOW!

Write to Secretary Thompson immediately to urge him not to delay or weaken the privacy regulation. The letter must be received by HHS no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 30. You can use or adapt the letter below.

Click here to submit your comments electronically.

A sample letter is shown below, just set the date and add your name at the bottom:

March ___, 2001
The Honorable Tommy G. Thompson
Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Attention: Privacy I
Room 801, Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am writing to oppose any delay or weakening of the new federal health
privacy regulation.
When I go to the doctor, I want the information in my medical records to be
kept confidential. But medical records routinely end up in the hands of
insurance companies, employers, marketing firms and police officers, and
there is currently no federal law to protect the confidentiality of those
records. While the final privacy regulation does not give consumers all the
protections we need, it does limit the use of our information without our
consent. It also gives us a new federal right to see and correct our own
health information. Please do not take these rights away.

I understand that many health care industry groups are urging you to delay
and weaken the privacy regulation, saying that it will cost too much. But
you cannot put a price on the cost of losing trust in a health care system
that does not respect the privacy of medical information.
We have waited long enough for federal rules to protect our medical records.
The consumer suffers the consequences from the lack of safeguards for
personal health information. You have stated that you would "put strong and
effective health privacy protections into effect as quickly as possible." I
hope you keep that promise to the American people.

Sincerely yours,
(your name and address)

Article submitted by the:
National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse
1211 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19107
800-553-4539

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