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B-157275 1 (1979-06-15)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabjnw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: . - . 1. COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON. D.C. 20548 IN REPLY REFER TO: B-157275 /0 r, JUN 15 1979 The Honorable Abraham Ribicoff Chairman, Committee on Governmental Affairs S/A/06'0 United States Senate I ear Mr. Chairman: for This is in response to your March 22, 1979i for our views regarding the provisions of S.503 96th Congress, and any recommendations which we may have con- cerning, possible Committee action. The bill, if enacted, would amend the Privacy Act of 1974 to provide for the confidentiality of medical records, and for other purposes. The bill would not authorize service providers or their employees to disclose information regarding whether an individual is a patient. Therefore, family, relatives, or friends contacting a service provider could not be told that the individual is a patient at the facility, the indi- vidual's condition, or the individual's location in the facility. We believe this would have a substantial negative impact on the public. We believe, therefore, that the bill should authorize disclosure of information that an individual is a patient, the patient's general condition, and where the patient is located, providing the patient does not specifi- cally object to such disclosure. In addition, should this provision be added to the bill, we believe the record of disclosure stipulated in subsection 205(c) should not be required for this type of disclosure because of the time involved and the paperwork burden to the service provider. We are aware of instances where service providers contract for the typing of medical records which contain confidential information. However, it appears that con- tracting for services of this type would be precluded under the bill. If it is intended that such contracting should be continued, the bill should be modified to au- thorize release of confidential information to contractors. Section 210(a) states that nothing in this title pro- hibits the disclosure of any confidential information which is not identified with or identifiable as being derived from /_k / A05& 0 5 MCR-79-1076 /0 #4 01

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