Health Information Exchange

One of the ACLU’s major, though not unexpected, defeats involved the passage of a bill that formalizes the establishment of a centralized health records database in the state. Although the Affiliate was able to add some confidentiality safeguards into the proposal, it was far from enough to satisfy numerous privacy concerns raised by the database. Health care providers strongly supported the bill as providing better coordination of health care. The ACLU agrees with that goal, but remains concerned that the new law will greatly limit a patient’s control over his or her records and open the door to widespread access to a patient’s full medical records by a variety of third parties. Although a patient will have the opportunity to opt-out of participating in the system, nothing in the new law prevents physicians from requiring patients to participate as a condition of treatment.