Letter: Medical records privacy should be preserved

Why do we need a federal medical privacy law? Health records contain highly personal information. Yet under current law, individuals have virtually no control over the information in their health records. Health records are being bought and sold for commercial gain, disclosed to employers, and used to deny individuals insurance.

Not only is this an invasion of our privacy, but it may adversely affect patient care. Some patients, fearing that their records are not safe, are withholding important personal health information from their doctors.

Currently there is no comprehensive federal law that protects health privacy, only a patchwork of state laws, many of which provide only minimal protections. I fear that this lack of strong national standards allows employers, schools, marketing agencies and others access to what ought to be confidential files.

Ensuring privacy in medical care is more important now than ever before because of new technologies, such as the computerization of medical records and genetic testing. Genetic research and testing have profound and increasing implications for our country's health care system because genetic information discloses not just our current health, but also purports to accurately predict our potential future health and the health of our families.

By law, Congress is required to pass privacy legislation by Aug. 21. If we fail to meet this deadline, the secretary of Health and Human Services will draw up regulations instead. So as the appropriate House committees consider legislative proposals in the upcoming weeks, I believe there are three basic principles that must be included in any privacy legislation: 1) health information should not be used or disclosed without the authorization of the patient; 2) individuals should have fundamental rights regarding medical information, such as the right to access, copy, and amend their records; and, 3) federal legislation should not pre-empt states and local laws that provide greater privacy protections.

Of course, one concern in the medical privacy debate is the possible detrimental effects on medical research. Some critics believe that since we have all benefited from past medical research we are obligated to contribute to future research. I agree. I believe our confidentiality can be protected by using coded, medical information without personal identifiers. That way the proper balance between medical research and personal privacy can be restored.

As the medical privacy debate progresses, many people will speak for industries that stand to make money from the use and misuse of information. For them, medical records are commodities to be bought and sold. But people are not commodities. The group Congress should listen to most will be hardest to hear, patients and their families. I plan to work with the Senate and my fellow colleagues in the House to ensure that they are not silenced.

REP. SHELLEY BERKLEY,

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