CDT-led Public Interest/Industry Coalition Letter
Supporting S.1360 -- Medical Records Privacy Legislation


A broad coalition of public-interest organizations, trade associations, and representatives from the telecommunications and computer hardware and software industries sent the following letter to the Senators Kassebaum and Kennedy.


April 29, 1996

Dear Senator Kassebaum and Senator Kennedy:

We write to express our support for the principles embodied in the Medical
Records Confidentiality Act (S.1360), as revised April 10, 1996.  We 
believe S.1360, in its current form, will provide strong, enforceable privacy
protections for peoples' medical records, while also fostering improved 
quality of care and efficiency in the health care environment.

We appreciate your commitment to this critical issue, as well as your 
willingness to address the need to modify S.1360 since its introduction.

We look forward to continuing to work with you to strengthen and clarify 
the Medical Records Confidentiality Act as it is considered further by 
the Congress.

Sincerely,

Aimee Berenson
AIDS Action Council

American Association of Retired Persons

Kathleen Frawley
American Health Information Management Association

Rick Pollack
American Hospital Association

Janlori Goldman
Center for Democracy and Technology

Margret Amatayakul
Computer-based Patient Record Institute

Lewis Lorton
Healthcare Open Systems and Trials

Christopher G. Caine
IBM Corporation

Susan Jacobs
Legal Action Center

Catherine Baxter
Medical Transcription Industry Alliance

Mark Epstein
National Association of Health Data Organizations

John Rector
National Association of Retail Druggists

Don E. Detmer, M.D.
University of Virginia Health Sciences Center

Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange

cc:	Senator Robert Bennett
	Senator Patrick Leahy
	Members of Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee



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