Administration Sets Forth a Limited View on Privacy

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

More privacy concerns. If this is what can happen with medical records,
library usage records which have less legal protection are surely a
concern.


Chuck

Administration Sets Forth a Limited View on Privacy
By ROBERT PEAR and ERIC LICHTBLAU
http://nytimes.com/2004/03/06/politics/06PRIV.html
Published: March 6, 2004

WASHINGTON, March 5 - In a sharp departure from its past insistence on the
sanctity of medical records, the Bush administration has set forth a new,
more limited view of privacy rights as it tries to force hospitals and
clinics to turn over records of hundreds and perhaps thousands of
abortions.

... Federal law "does not recognize a physician-patient privilege," the
Justice Department said last month in court papers that sought abortion
records from Planned Parenthood clinics in California, Kansas, Missouri,
Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington. Moreover, the department said
in another abortion case, patients "no longer possess a reasonable
expectation that their histories will remain completely confidential."

... What began late last year as a fairly modest government effort to
obtain records appears to have ballooned into a systematic effort in
courts around the country to define the limits of medical privacy.

Health care professionals and privacy advocates say the government's
position has broad implications beyond abortion. If patients have no
reasonable expectation of privacy, the critics say, the government may be
more aggressive in seeking records from hospitals, insurance companies and
other businesses in criminal, civil and administrative cases.

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