Adam Wilson reports: One of the more intensive lobbying battles last year was over “data mining” by drug companies, which use lists of prescriptions from pharmacies to find doctors who weren’t prescribing what they were selling. Then they’d pay the doctor a visit and suggest Brand X. The bill died, but its successor has broader…
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Protect Health Privacy Provisions In Recovery Package
Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Tuesday urged Congress to support critical health information privacy protections included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which the Senate is considering this week. The legislation includes funding for investments and incentives in health information technology. The increased use of technology and the Internet can…
UK: GPs win battle to stop researchers' records access
Ministers have scrapped plans that would have granted researchers access to identifiable medical records without patient consent after an uproar among GPs over patient confidentiality. A passage included in the draft NHS Constitution, which could have granted researchers unrestricted access to patient data, has been dropped from the final document. The Department of Health confirmed…
UK: NHS refusing to let patients opt out of Summary Care Record
NHS bosses leading the rollout of the Summary Care Record are refusing to take no for an answer from patients who say they want to opt out, Pulse can reveal. GPs in the first wave of the rollout are being asked to send their PCT a list of patients opting out of the programme, despite…
AMA Wins Legal Victory for Physicians in Privacy Court Case
Statement attributable to: Jeremy Lazarus, MD Board Member, AMA “Physicians have won a major victory for preserving their privacy in the recent ruling by the D.C. Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals. The American Medical Association successfully fought to preserve protections against public disclosure of Medicare payments to physicians. “The court found that…
UK: BMA calls for exemption on data sharing
The BMA is calling for confidential health information to be exempt from new government legislation which will allow sharing of personal data across Whitehall departments. The controversial powers are included in the Coroners and Justice Bill which had its second reading in the House of Commons last week. The BMA claimed the data sharing powers…