ASHINGTON, Dec. 20 � Leaders of the health care industry said today that they would immediately ask President-elect George W. Bush to revise new rules issued by President Clinton to protect the privacy of medical records.
But Clinton administration officials said broad public support for such safeguards would lead the Bush administration to accept the rules.
The statements suggested that far from ending a five-year battle over personal privacy, the new rules would set off a new round in the struggle between privacy advocates and the health care industry, which will take its case to the new administration and to Congress.
Advisers to Mr. Bush said he supported the principle of medical privacy, but would want to review the new rules. Ari Fleischer, a spokesman for the Bush transition team, said, "As with all last-minute regulations, we will review them upon assuming the presidency on Jan. 20."
The new administration could delay or revise the privacy rules, but would need to solicit public comment before making major changes.
Consumer advocates vowed to defend the rules, which Mr. Clinton described as "the most sweeping privacy protections ever written." But hospitals, health plans and other health care providers said they hoped the new administration would rewrite the rules to lessen the burden on their industry.
Mary R. Grealy, the president of the Health Care Leadership Council, an association of 50 chief executives from large health care companies, said: "We definitely will be working with the new administration to seek a more balanced approach to protecting privacy. We are sending papers to the Bush transition team."
Ms. Grealy expressed concern about a fundamental feature of the new rules requiring doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to obtain written consent from patients before disclosing their medical information even for routine purposes like treatment or the payment of claims. That requirement was not in the proposal issued by the White House in November 1999.
Health care providers will have to retain such consent forms for a minimum of six years. Ms. Grealy said she worried that health care providers would have the "privacy police" looking over their shoulders to make sure they had the necessary forms.
Lawrence A. Ponemon, global leader of the privacy practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, which advises hundreds of health care institutions, said: "Our clients in the health care industry need to be very alarmed. Most hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies are light-years away from complying with these rules. They don't understand the magnitude of the rules."
Two Democrats, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, applauded the rules, which are scheduled to take effect in two years, with civil and criminal penalties. Mr. Markey said he was pleased with the consent requirement and the fact that the government was covering paper records as well as electronic records.
"Requiring written consent is crucial to giving patients meaningful control over the most intimate details of their lives," Mr. Markey said.
Donna E. Shalala, secretary of health and human services, said Mr. Bush would probably not change the rules. After reviewing them, Dr. Shalala said, he will see that "we have found a proper balance" and "these rules have broad support."
