Newspaper Groups Speak Out About Privacy Rule Changes

On March 22, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson proposed changes to the privacy rule in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which restricts health care providers’ ability to release patient information.

While recognizing the need for patient privacy, NNA President Kenneth H. Rhoades, president of Enterprise Publishing Company in Blair, NE, also said that too-strict privacy rules would strangle newsgathering and restrict the information that reaches newspaper readers.

Several state press organizations immediately signed on to the resolution, including: MDDC, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Minnesota, New York press associations and New England Newspaper Association.

Rhoades said the existing privacy rule, which is set to go into effect next year, would make reporting on matters of high public concern, such as the 9/11 disaster, much more difficult.
"Even an ambulance worker who disclosed something that might arguably be considered a personal fact about a patient would be subject to civil and criminal penalties," Rhoades said.

"Fear of making an error will lead hospitals, doctors, emergency workers and others to adopt a policy of silence, and leave the public in the dark about the status of their friends and neighbors during an emergency," added Rhodes. "Privacy rules are important, but this one is so broad that it will create secrecy instead of public understanding."

NNA and other organizations last year provided HHS with a long list of stories that would not have appeared as they were, if the rule had been in effect.

The changes to the rule were released in the Federal Register on March 27, with a 30-day comment period.