“Let me begin by thanking Subcommittee Chairman Bilirakis for holding this timely hearing on the Federal medical record privacy regulation, which is now the subject of a comment period that expires at the end of the month.

“The Energy and Commerce Committee has already held two hearings this year on privacy.  This hearing, of course, will focus on medical privacy, an area of the law that raises a host of important issues for consumers and health care providers.

“The specific purpose of this hearing today will be to examine a regulation that was issued in the closing days of the Clinton Administration.  Once the new Administration has time to review the comments they are receiving on this regulation, we will bring Secretary Thompson’s team forward and hear their thoughts about how the regulation can be improved.  As I told my good friend Mr. Dingell this week, we are working to arrange a time to host Secretary Thompson or his designee at a hearing before this Committee so that we can inquire further into their positions on this privacy regulation.

“We all want to be sure that our medical records are kept private, and this is not a new concern.   In fact, the Hippocratic Oath states that ‘Whatever, in connection with my professional service, or not in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret.’  Physicians have subscribed to these tenets since at least the 4^th Century B.C., and these principles still apply today.

“Unfortunately, in the interconnected 21^st Century, relying on the Hippocratic Oath isn’t good enough.  Records are reduced to electronic form and shipped from one part of the country to another for diagnosis, payment, fulfilling prescriptions, or epidemiological research.  Every American wants to know that their medical records remain confidential, and that sensitive medical information identifiable to them, is not bought, sold and displayed on the Internet.  No one deserves to have that happen to them.  We want to be assured that personally-identifiable health information is protected from public disclosure, and that privacy safeguards are developed that would complement rather than burden biomedical research.  Moreover, we need to make sure that workable security systems are in place safeguarding the privacy of the medical records of American citizens.   All of the protections on the books won’t help consumers unless we can prevent criminals from breaking into computers and improperly accessing patients’ medical records. 

“And that’s why we are here today—to discuss these issues.  During this hearing, we want to examine the implications of moving forward with the Clinton Administration’s privacy policy.  While we have no doubt that drafting this regulation was an arduous process, and an unenviable task, we still need to explore how we can improve this regulation and make it work more effectively for consumers and health care providers.        

“We all want today’s hearing to be constructive.  For example, I hope that we can hear about what parts of the regulation could be strengthened from a consumer’s point of view.  How can we better draft this regulation to bring these new protections to consumers in a more cost-effective way?  What provisions need a little more fine-tuning in light of real-life practices?  These are the kinds of issues we would like to explore today.”