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Privacy Issue Complicates Push to Link Medical Data
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Issue
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jan 18, 2009 08:52am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Saturday, January 17, 2009 02:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By ROBERT PEAR
Published: January 17, 2009
WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to link up doctors and hospitals with new information technology, as part of an ambitious job-creation program, is imperiled by a bitter, seemingly intractable dispute over how to protect the privacy of electronic medical records.
Lawmakers, caught in a crossfire of lobbying by the health care industry and consumer groups, have been unable to agree on privacy safeguards that would allow patients to control the use of their medical records.
Congressional leaders plan to provide $20 billion for such technology in an economic stimulus bill whose cost could top $825 billion.
In a speech outlining his economic recovery plan, Mr. Obama said, “We will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years all of America’s medical records are computerized.” Digital medical records could prevent medical errors, save lives and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, Mr. Obama has said.
So far, the only jobs created have been for a small army of lobbyists trying to secure money for health information technology. They say doctors, hospitals, drugstores and insurance companies would be much more efficient if they could exchange data instantaneously through electronic health information networks. Consumer groups and some members of Congress insist that the new spending must be accompanied by stronger privacy protections in an era when digital data can be sent around the world or posted on the Web with the click of a mouse.
Lawmakers leading the campaign for such safeguards include Representatives Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Pete Stark of California, both Democrats; Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont; and Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine. |
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