GREETERS: Ellen Greenerger & Joyce Knauff
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Jeff Martin
ATTENDANCE: Margaret Wein
SCRIBE: Greg Michel
GUESTS:
Jack Close was the guest of Bob Meeder, and has applied for membership.
Apryl Eshelman was introduced by Jeff Martin, but she found us on the internet. She’s applied for membership.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
RYLA applications are due. Please contact Jeff.
For more information about the club’s vocational scholarship, see Will Daniels.
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS:
Pam reported on the great progress being made in Guatemala with the newly-installed remote X-ray equipment. It’s truly making a difference in the quality and effectiveness of health care there.
PROGRAM: Elaine Zacharakis, Attorney: Understanding your Rights
under HIPAA & Comparing US laws to laws of other countries
Elaine is a corporate and regulatory health care attorney , anAdjunct Professor at Loyola Law School , Beazley Institute for Health Law & Policy , and an Adjunct Professor at the John Marshall Law School, Center for Information Technology & Privacy law.
Elaine’s general position is that privacy is a fundamental human right that has become one of the most important rights of the modern age.
Here is the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Privacy: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interferences or attacks”
There are two types of International Privacy Laws: Compregensive and Sectoral.
-- Comprehensive: General laws that govern the collection, use and dissemination of personal information by public and private sectors
Examples: European Union, Australia, Canada and the UK
-- Sectoral Laws: The idea is to avoid general laws and, instead focus on specific sectors
The advantage: Enforcement is achieved through a range of mechanisms
The disadvantage: New legislation has to be introduced with each new technology
This type is used by the United States
HIPPA – This statute was enacted in 1996 and included mandates for administrative simplification. The mandate for privacy in the act:
“if legislation governing standards with respect to the privacy of IIHI transmitted in connection with the [HIPAA] transactions
is not enacted by the date that is 36 months after the date of enactment (August 21, 1999), then the Secretary of Health &
Human Services shall promulgate final regulations containing such standards not later than the date that is 42 months after
the date of the enactment of this Act.”
Why was a US Comprehensive Privacy Law never passed? Here is a quote from Paul Starr, in the American Journal of Law & Medicine (1999) in an article entitled “Health and the Right to Privacy”:
“Despite public sentiment, health privacy legislation has been stalled for decades. Indeed, privacy legislation in the
US has made little legislative headway despite broad support in public opinion polls. Political scientists identify
the blockage of privacy protection as the classic case of triumph of the concentrated interests over the diffuse
interests…that is , the ability of the information industry and in this case, much of the health insurance industry,
with their ample financial resources, to prevail over the broad, but weak commitment of the public.”
