Updated: 12/21/00 You can download and read yourself the PDF document (1533 pages!) here from the gov’t ‘Administration Simplification’ (??!!) page. The New York Times (free login required) is reporting that new medical record privacy rules are to take effect in two years. ‘…The new rules, completing four years of work, will affect virtually every doctor, patient, hospital, pharmacy and health insurance plan in the country, setting the first comprehensive federal standards for transactions now regulated by a jumble of state laws…They
cover not only electronic records, but also paper records, regardless of
whether they ever existed in electronic form. The rules will also cover oral
communications by health care providers and health plans…the disclosure of medical information would be limited to the
“minimum necessary” for any purpose like paying bills…’