House releases draft of I.T. legislation

WASHINGTON Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has released a discussion draft of proposed health care information technology legislation.

Provisions of the draft bill, which contains ideas from at least five House bills introduced during the last two congressional sessions, include the following:

• Subject business associates directly to the safeguards in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy and security bills and hold business associates directly accountable to the federal government for violations of minimum contract requirements.
• Close a HIPAA loophole that permits disclosure of protected health information for “treatment alternatives.” Authors of the legislation believe providers have used the loophole to send marketing materials to patients without their authorization.
• Require regional health information organizations and health information exchanges to have business associate contracts under the privacy rule.
• Require personal health record vendors who store the records in one place to notify consumers of data breaches.
• Codify, or place into law, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. This would make the position permanent.
• Establish two federal advisory committees to prioritize and develop technical data standards.
• Establish and fund a health information technology resource center.
• Establish grant programs to support provider adoption of I.T., support state-based I.T. loans for provider I.T. adoption, and support local and regional health information exchange initiatives. The discussion draft does not specify funding levels.