Category: Uncategorized

  CDT today released a major policy paper intended to move the health privacy debate from its outdated focus on patient consent to a comprehensive framework that will provide more effective privacy protection. CDT is advocating for the inclusion of privacy protections in the President’s economic stimulus bill, which contains at least $20 billion for…

Mark Leavitt, chairman of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, has a letter to the editor in the New York Times: Re “Privacy Issue Complicates Push to Link Medical Data” (news article, Jan. 18): Consumer groups and some members of Congress rightly express concern that President Obama’s plan to stimulate the use of information…

Juan McCartney reports: Authorities in the Bahamas have detained an island lawmaker and a paramedic in an alleged plot to extort money from actor John Travolta after the death of his son, police said Friday. One of the suspects, ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne, was detained on Friday. Earlier, several tabloids quoted him describing efforts to…

Many patients assume their prescription history is confidential, but a loophole in a federal privacy law is letting pharmaceutical marketing companies to contact consumers with targeted, promotional campaigns. … To fight this, Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle) and others have introduced House Bill 1493 to close the loophole. Advocates say the change would protect thousands of…

Andrea Stone reports: Thousands of abortion opponents marched here on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade Thursday, but for the first time in 14 years, they found themselves out of step with both the president and the party controlling Congress. […] Bush routinely sent words of encouragement to the March for Life. President Obama issued…

Just before Washington’s collective attention turned to inaugural festivities, House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Fortney (Pete) Stark, D-Calif., dropped legislation aimed at overhauling the U.S. healthcare system through advances in technology. Stark introduced a similar bill in the 110th Congress — much of which was culled from a proposal that emerged from the…