EFF "Privacy - Medical & Psychiatric Records and Drug Testing" Archive

Files in this Archive

20010328_eff_hipaa_alert.html

EFF Action Alert: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires Health & Human Services Dept. medical privacy regulations. President G.W. Bush has delayed implementation of Clinton-era draft regulations, to the detriment of the public interest. However, even though these regs would be a good and necessary first step in protecting medical privacy at the national level, the regs contain a number of loopholes that need to be fixed. Included are both EFF's comments to HHS on the matter, and a letter from US Rep. (and M.D.) Ron Paul to fellow legislators, on his plans to solve those remaining issues. Implementation should not be delayed any longer. (Mar. 28, 2001)"

20000216_eff_dhhs_medpriv_comments.html

EFF's comments to US Dept. of Health & Human Services, in opposition to the "Proposed Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information", which are woefully inadequate. (Feb. 16, 2000)

19990922_hr10_alert.html

H.R. 10 Medical "Confidentiality" Bill a Severe Threat to Privacy -- legislation would allow insurance companies to give highly sensitive and personally identifiable medical data to banks, credit bureaus, debt collectors, "research" projects, police and many others, without patient knowledge or consent! URGENT ACTION NEEDED! (Issued Sept. 22, 1999, deadline Sept. 23, 1999)

19990922_hr10_analysis.html

H.R. 10 Medical "Confidentiality" Bill a Severe Threat to Privacy -- legislation would allow insurance companies to give highly sensitive and personally identifiable medical data to banks, credit bureaus, debt collectors, "research" projects, police and many others, without patient knowledge or consent! Full text of relevant bill text, and short EFF analysis. (Sept. 22, 1999

1993_ota_medical_privacy.report

file explaining how the computerization of health care information, "presents new challenges to individual privacy and highlights the need for governmnet legistlation to preserve those rights while making appropriate information available for approved uses."

aclu_drug_testing_workplace.faq

ACLU's November 1992 briefing on FAQs regarding drug testing in the workplace. Includes a listing of other ACLU FAQ's at the end.

cfp2_gene_panel.transcript

transcript of the March 1992 panel titled "Who's in Your Genes." in which panelists debated the creation of a national genetic database as a form of identification.

hr3482_96.bill

The McDermott medical privacy bill, HR 3482, introduced May 16, 1996: The "Medical Privacy in the Age of New Technologies Act of 1996" Referred to the Committee on Commerce, and to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

med_infosys_forum.announce

announcement of a mailing list for medial information systems managers. This may be a good place to express medical privacy concerns to the very people that implement and operate the system in question, and to poll professionals in this field about privacy attitudes and practices. Behave in here though - this is their area, for discussion amongs, and relevant to, people in the field. Flames and off-topic posts will likely get you booted.

med_priv_ota.report

Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report on private electronic medical records. Abstract: "Computerization of health care information, while offering new opportunities to improve and streamline the health care delivery system, also presents new challenges to individual privacy interests in personal health care data. Technical capabilities to secure and maintain confidentiality in data must work in tandem with legislation to preserve those privacy interests while making appropriate information available for approved uses."

privexperts_ssn_medical_card_hcrtf.letter

letter from privacy experts and civil liberties organizations to the Clinton Health Care Reform Task Force, opposing the use of social security tax ID numbers on any forthcoming national medical ID cards. April 26 1993.

urine_test.list

A pair of lists. The first is a list of companies that have urine or other "human quality" test programs as reported by first person experience. The second list is a list of companies that are known to have public policies AGAINST the invasion of privacy and the violation of Constitutional protection that "human quality" tests constitute.

zip_code_database_problem.article

short article on how 9-digit zipcodes in government databases could threaten personal privacy.

Subdirectories in This Archive

Up to the Parent Directory

Foreign_and_local/

Directory containing a information on foreign, state, and local medical privacy issues.

Related On-Site Resources

Insurance Claims Privacydirectory of info on HR1029,

the Insurance Claims Privacy Protection Act, a piece of legislation introduced in 1997 by US Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY) to preclude a "crime bureau" from establishing an "all-claims" database to which law enforcement officers have easy access for privacy-invasive "fishing expeditions" in which data on all insurance claimants is treated as if it belonged to crime suspects.

Telemedicine link to directory of information on

telemedicine, medical networking, remote & "VR" surgery and related topics.

Links to Related Off-Site Resources

Columbia University, Department of Medical Informatics

TAP's med-privacy mailing list archives

The S.C.A.N. FAQ

Frequently asked questions about individual microchip technology, including "Radio Frequency Identification" (RFID) and "Electronic Article Surveillance" (EAS) devices - insertable, implantable and attachable microchip-based location trackers (currently being used on pet animals, but could eventually be used to mark and track human individuals.) Also covers temporary-use devices used to monitor human fetuses and body cavity conditions in medical situations.