from: http://www.mercola.com/2001/mar/24/privacy.htm
Action Needed THIS WEEK to Kill Clinton Privacy Regulations That Give Government Full Control of Your Medical Records Thanks to all of your responses in Feb., we have postponed the Clinton administration's leftover medical "privacy" regulations that would give the federal government unprecedented access to our personal medical records. But We Haven't Won Yet! Last month, you shut down the email server at the Department of Health and Human Services with your responses. Now we have to do the same with snail mail. (Instructions at www.aapsonline.org ; click on "Privacy Regulations: More Action Needed by March 30," at top left-hand side of site.) HHS Secretary Thompson has extended the public comment period through March 30, 2001, and will decide by April 14 whether the rules will go into effect. We must show how much the public opposes these rules. Why These Rules Must Be Scrapped! Masquerading as "medical privacy protection," these rules were written to fulfill the "Administrative Simplification" section of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. "Administrative simplification" is a concept and term carried over from Hillary's Health Care Task Force and the failed ClintonCare plan for government control of medicine and medical records. This 1,500 page document is a direct result of the Clinton view that the government should control every aspect of our medical care. It is a desperate, last-ditch effort to set the stage for Hillary's vision of socialized medicine and eliminate your privacy. Public comments must be received by HHS via MAIL by March 30, 2001. The address, sample comments and action steps are posted at www.aapsonline.org. (Look for "Privacy Regulations: More Action Needed by March 30," at top left-hand side of site.) The clock is ticking! ... from: http://www.aapsonline.org/aaps/ The rules create a massive federal mandate that requires every doctors to share patients' records with the federal government, without patient consent -- whether you pay for services yourself or not. That includes handwritten notes and psychiatric records. Patients have no recourse for breaches of medical privacy other than the right to complain. If a judgment is entered against a violator, the government, not the patient, is paid the fine. The regulations may prevent doctors from informing parents of the specifics of their child's medical condition. Patients may be refused medical treatment if they won't give consent to health care providers to divulge their medical records to any parties. Doctors can be fined for refusing to provide records. Every person will be assigned a "unique patient identifier" to track medical history from birth to death that could be incorporated into a national ID card along with genetic information. Law enforcement agencies will have unrestricted access to all records -- including notes about drug use, family situation and activities. 1. Send your comments to HHS BY MAIL by 5 p.m. March 30. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Attention: Privacy I Room 801 Hubert H. Humphrey Building 200 Independence Avenue S.W. Washington, DC 20201 HHS is not accepting comments by phone or fax! 2. Copy your letter to your Members of Congress. 3. Sign the petition at NewsMax.com. DO NOT SIGN THE PETITION IN LIEU OF SENDING A LETTER. 4. Sign up for future alerts and actions updates from AAPS. TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR LETTER: A brief letter is better than none. They will count the number of responses, so we do need volume. Send by priority and/or certified mail, or overnight letter. Include: full name, address and telephone number of the sender or a knowledgeable point of contact. State that your comments concerning the final federal medical privacy rule (Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information), Sections 164.502 and 164.506. Please note your strenuous objection to access by the government or any third party to your medical file, records or unique DNA code without your written consent. -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
