South Carolina Medical Association Files Suit Against HHS To Block Medical Privacy Rules

The South Carolina Medical Association has filed suit against HHS to overturn new medical privacy rules that regulate access to medical records, the AP/Washington Post reports. The association, which represents 6,000 physicians, says the rules are unconstitutional because they were drafted "with little congressional input." The association also calls the rules "burdensome," saying they will increase costs, "create more paperwork and impede hospital pre-admission procedures." SCMA President J. Capers Hiott said, "What we are filing is based on a constitutional flaw. We're not filing this because we are against anything that has to do with patient privacy. Physicians are one of the staunch supporters of patient privacy." With the lawsuit, SCMA hopes to prevent the rules from taking effect and to "send them back to Congress" so new rules can be drafted with input from providers. HHS would not comment on the lawsuit (Geier, AP/Washington Post, 7/16). The rules, part of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, were issued by the Clinton administration and allowed to take effect by the Bush administration in April. By April 2003, the regulations will require doctors to obtain patients' consent before disclosing their records to third parties and impose "strict requirements" for using patient information on health plans, hospitals and other health entities (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 4/12). On July 6, HHS issued guidelines to clarify the rule, indicating that "privacy protections must not interfere with a patient's access to or the quality of health care delivery." The guidance noted, for example, that a friend or relative may pick up a patient's prescription and that physicians may still call out patient names in waiting rooms, two practices that providers had feared would be banned under a strict reading of the rules (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/9).