ACLU Proposes Bills to Protect Medical Privacy

News Release: 
Friday, November 20, 2009

Responding to citizen demands for action to safeguard sensitive personal information, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington has drafted House and Senate bills to protect the privacy of people’s medical information. The bills would prohibit nonhealth care providers with legitimate access to medical records from disclosing these medical records to anyone else for further use. The bills would bar insurance companies from marketing medical records to third parties.

"Washington citizens have a right to expect that their medical records be used to help health care providers give the best medical care possible, not as a marketing tool by insurance companies," said Jerry Sheehan, Legislative Director for the ACLU of Washington.

It is especially important to put these protections in place now, when the legislature is considering adoption of a patients’ Bill of Rights "Protecting privacy should be an important component of a patients’ Bill of Rights," said the ACLU-WA’s Jerry Sheehan.

House Bill 2901 is sponsored by Representative Dow Constantine, and Senate Bill 6684 is sponsored by Senator Pat Thibaudeau. Both measures were introduced in the state legislature today.

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