On Wednesday, the New Hampshire House rejected a measure that would have added privacy restrictions to electronic health records, the New Hampshire Business Review reports.
Health care providers and hospitals opposed the bill (HB 1587) (New Hampshire Business Review, 3/13).
Provisions of the measure would have allowed patients to block access to their EHRs and see who has viewed their records. The legislation also would allow patients to prevent the transfer of their EHR to a physician and restrict the use of their personal health data in marketing or fundraising efforts (iHealthBeat, 3/11).
Supporters of the bill said that its costs would be limited, and physician privacy restrictions are built into the current software so additional patient restrictions would not be too difficult to create. Patients also would have had to pay for the audit reports (New Hampshire Business Review, 3/13).
Critics said the measure would complicate physicians' work and bring an unknown price tag, as well as "another level of confusion with its own bureaucracy," according to state Rep. Alida Millham (R) (Dorgan, AP/Concord Monitor, 3/13).
State Rep. John Dejoie (D) also warned of unintended consequences from the bill, such as physicians not obtaining needed patient data, costs that could increase insurance premiums and the printing of long audits that do not serve a medical purpose.
The bill was rejected 150-166 but was sent for interim study, which means it could return in 2009 (New Hampshire Business Review, 3/13).