Washington Despite harsh criticism from consumer advocates and Congressional Democrats, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department Aug. 14 published a final privacy rule designed to “ensure strong privacy protections without interfering with Americans' access to quality health care,” HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said.

The Alexandria, Va.-based American Association for Homecare applauded the rule, which the association said strikes a sensible balance between patients' privacy rights and bureaucratic burdens.

“This final [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] rule will finally enable providers to move ahead with their compliance plans,” said Tom Connaughton, the association's president. “It also reduces a lot of unnecessary paperwork for providers, allowing them to spend more time treating patients and not interfering with a patient's right to get timely, effective care.”

After HHS in March proposed modifications to the privacy rule, the agency received more than 11,000 public comments, Thompson said.

One of the proposal's most controversial provisions — a provision that would ease the prior-consent requirements — survived in the final rule, prompting Democrats in both congressional houses to vow to amend the rule in September. A spokesman for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., confirmed that the senator plans to introduce an amendment to the privacy rule this month.

For now, providers no longer have to obtain a patient's written consent before releasing health care information, HHS said. Instead, the rule requires that providers make “a good faith effort to obtain a patient's written acknowledgement of the notice of privacy rights and practices,” the department explained. It also removes “mandatory consent requirements that would inhibit patient access to health care, while providing covered entities with the option of developing a consent process that works for that entity.”

A summary of the final rule is available at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/20020809.html.

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