Senate Stymied On Medical Privacy Legislation.

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, June, 1999 by FISHER, MARY JANE

After working hard to report out a bipartisan medical record confidentiality bill, members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee called off negotiations last week, subject to the call of Committee Chairman Jim Jeffords, R-Vt. Committee Democrats and Republicans were caught in a conflict between views of pro-life and right-to-choose forces over junior rights to privacy from parental notification.

The. issue is whether medical records would trigger notification to parents of pregnancy or AIDS. Another unresolved issue was that of the "right to sue" for violations of medical confidentiality law--a major obstacle also holding up congressional debate on a proposed "Patient's Bill of Rights." A third unresolved problem was whether federal...

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