On Tuesday, Bill Pewen, health policy adviser to Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), said privacy language in a bill aimed at accelerating the adoption of interoperable electronic health records has yet to be embraced by Congress, CongressDaily reports.
Snowe provided privacy language for a health IT bill sponsored by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).
However, the latest version of the legislation includes a privacy loophole related to consent for using health care data for marketing purposes, according to Pewen. He added that a privacy breach notification provision offered by Snowe also lacked support.
The bill is expected to be reintroduced in some form in the next Congress.
Pewen said he hoped 2009 would be "the big year we've been waiting for" in regard to health care reform but stressed the importance of ensuring patients' privacy and security (CongressDaily, 11/19).