Harley Geiger writes about an issue I’ve discussed on this blog in the past: the privacy of the deceased’s medical records: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to remove health information privacy protections from people who have been dead for 50 years. HHS issued a proposed rule to update health privacy regulations,…
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Follow-Up: State Department Limits DNA Testing at Cal
Rachel Gross reports: UC Berkeley will go ahead with its controversial DNA testing program for freshmen, but with one key change: students won’t receive personal analyses of the three genes being tested. Instead, professors will lecture on the politics of personalized medicine and the results of the data as a whole. The change was necessitated by…
OCR Issues Proposed Modifications to HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules
Guest commentary from Daniel F. Gottlieb, Bernadette M. Broccolo, Jennifer S. Geetter, Jerry Tichner, Jeanna Palmer Gunville, Sarah S. Nelson, Edward G. Zacharias and Stephen W. Bernstein, attorneys in the Health Industry Advisory Practice Group of global law firm McDermott, Will & Emery, LLP [Editor’s note: Due to its length, this guest commentary will be…
Senators demand Lockerbie bomber's medical records
From a news story in the Telegraph: US senators have called on the Scottish government to disclose the Lockerbie bomber’s full medical records in an attempt to understand why he was released early. In a letter to First Minister Alex Salmond they asked for the release of all medical documentation for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al…
Clinics Challenge Louisiana Abortion Laws
Sabrina Canfield reports: Six medical clinics have challenged Louisiana laws on abortion, including the “Ultrasound Statute,” which could force doctors to make women take home ultrasound pictures of their fetuses, even if the women resist, according to the federal complaint. The Hope Medical Group for Women and five other clinics say the two state laws…
CDT breaks down proposed changes to HIPAA
The Center For Democracy and Technology (CDT) just sent out this announcement: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a set of significant updates to health privacy rules. The proposed rule tackles how sensitive patient information is handled under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which is the nation’s foremost…