Coalition presses for privacy as part of stimulus package

WASHINGTON – The Coalition for Patient Privacy is urging Congress to include privacy safeguards with any funding earmarked for healthcare IT in an economic stimulus package. The package was expected to hit President Obama’s desk shortly after inauguration.

The bipartisan coalition, representing more than 30 organizations, individual experts and the Microsoft Corporation, said trust is essential to public adoption of healthcare IT.

In a letter to Congressional leaders, the coalition called for accountability for access to health records, control of personal information and transparency to protect healthcare consumers from abuse.

Michelle De Mooy, a national priorities associate from Consumer Action, said, “Privacy is not just a basic right for all Americans; it has become a basic necessity.”

Obama has called for electronic health records for every American by 2014. In the past few years, Congress has been unable to pass a healthcare IT bill, with much of that difficulty rising from inability to reconcile differences of opinion on healthcare IT privacy.