March 2, 2001
HHS Delays Effective Date for Final Privacy Rule
In an Feb. 23 press statement, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson announced that the effective date of the final rule creating new federal privacy rights for personal health information, "Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information," will be delayed until April 14, 2001, and that the final rule will be open to a 30-day public comment period.
Under the Congressional Review Act, HHS was legally required to submit this regulation for consideration by the Congress for a 60-day period. Due to an oversight under the prior administration, this requirement was not met. As a result of this oversight, the 60-day period of Congressional review did not begin until Feb. 13 and, therefore, the effective date of the regulation has been delayed until April 14. The HHS statement, which was announced Feb. 23 and printed in the Feb. 26 Federal Register [66 FR 12433-12434], says HHS will open the final regulation to a 30-day public comment period. The department will review the comments it receives to determine whether changes in the final rule are needed.
Secretary Thompson believes that this review period will serve as an opportunity to ensure that the provisions of this final rule will indeed work as intended throughout the complex field of health care, without creating unanticipated consequences that might harm patients' access to care or the quality of that care.
The deadline for public comments on the final rule is March 30, as printed in the Feb. 28 Federal Register [66 FR 12738-12739]. All comments should specify the section of the final rule to which the specific comment pertains. Only written comments or comments submitted over the HHS Administrative Simplification Web site will be accepted.
Information: Andrew Quon, AAMC Division of Biomedical and Health Sciences, 202-828-0485.
