Wes Vernon
Wednesday, March 14, 2001

House Majority Leader Dick Armey has fired off a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson urging that he suspend implementation of Bill Clinton's last-minute medical privacy regulations.

It is Armey’s opinion that anti-privacy is a better term for those regulations. He has told Thompson that the rules could, in fact, do more harm than good "to those concerned about privacy of their records."

In particular, the "midnight regulation" (a term used to describe regulations imposed in the waning hours of the Clinton presidency) would create a mandate requiring doctors, hospitals, HMOs, druggists, insurance companies and other health care providers to share medical records with the federal government. Under certain circumstances, says Armey, the federal government could obtain this information "at any time and without notice."

Thompson has held up action on the rule – originally scheduled to take effect Feb. 26 – until April 14, to receive public comment. Armey, as a leader of Congress in Thompson’s own party, is likely to carry considerable weight in HHS deliberations.

"We have a lot of faith in Secretary Thompson," Armey spokesman Richard Diamond told NewsMax.com on Tuesday.

In his letter to the secretary, Armey says, "It is not entirely clear to me how the new rules will address the real medical privacy harms currently suffered by patients not already covered by tort law or other remedies." In fact, he adds, they "may have the opposite effect, putting private personally identifiable information at greater risk than exists today."

The congressman is skeptical of the federal government’s ability to protect "sensitive personal information about individuals." In fact, he thinks the federal record in that regard is "questionable."

He cites the Department of Veterans Affairs as an example. That department alone received a "D" from the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee for its ability to protect its computer systems from prying eyes.

And just yesterday, Armey urged the Federal Trade Commission "to consider the government’s own information practices when they hold a workshop on the private sector’s use and exchange of consumer data." According to a report of the privacy think tank Privacilla, there has been an alarming increase in the amount of information that federal agencies share with each other. These federal agencies have a poor track record or protecting sensitive information.

"If the government is going to monitor the information sharing practices in the public sector, I would like to know who is going to monitor the government," the House majority leader declared.

In his letter to Thompson, Armey concluded, "In short, this proposed regulation puts the medical privacy of millions Americans at risk." This, he says, "is inviting abuse, errors, scandal and tragedy."

NewsMax.com has an emergency petition you can sign to prevent this invasion of your privacy.

Express your views – send a free e-mail to Secretary Tommy Thompson.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Medical Privacy
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