The non-partisan Consumer Watchdog called on Google today to cease a rumored lobbying effort aimed at allowing the sale of electronic medical records in the current version of the Economic Stimulus legislation. Consumer Watchdog called on Congress to remove loopholes in the ban on the sale of medical records and include other privacy protections absent from the current bill such as giving patients the right to an audit detailing who had accessed their medical records and how the records were used.
Read more of the press release.
Also, CDT issued the following:
CDT Calls for Strong Privacy Provisions to be Included in Economic Stimulus Package
In testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at CDT, urged Congress to include strong privacy protections with the proposed $20 billion for health information technology that is part of President Obama’s economic stimulus package. Survey data shows that Americans have significant concerns about the privacy of putting their medical records online. McGraw applauded privacy provisions in the stimulus bill moving through the House, saying they are a step in the right direction toward creating a comprehensive framework of
privacy and security protections for electronic health information. McGraw’s urged the Senate to go a step further, by adding additional enforcement and accountability provisions. January 27, 2009Deven McGraw’s Senate Testimony [PDF], January 27, 2009:
http://www.cdt.org/testimony/20090127_mcgraw.pdf