Lawsuit claims stimulus violates HIPAA.

• Position: PRIVACY

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

According to a lawsuit filed by registered nurse in Duram, N.H., the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's (HIPAA) privacy rule, Privacy Act, and Federal Common Law.

Beatrice Heghmann's complaint, filed June 25, states the stimulus act requires every healthcare provider to acquire and implement the technology to create electronic health records for every U.S. resident by 2014. According to the lawsuit: "Since Medicare and Medicaid now cover only about 23% of the population, the stimulus act by design affects the privacy of the personal health information for the 65% of the population such as the plaintiff and all those similarly situated who are covered by private health insurance."

The suit says the law violates the privacy rule in that it requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to determine what constitutes "minimum necessary" disclosure of information under HIPAA, as well as issue guidance on how best to implement the requirements for de-identification of protected health information under HIPAA, according to a report by HealthData Management.com.

The suit names Kathleen Sebelius, HHS secretary; Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform; and Charlene Frizzera, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as defendants.

The stimulus act authorizes $2...