Feb., 28 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tommy Thompson, President Bush’s new secretary of Health and Human Services, announced (on Feb. 26) that the administration would delay and reconsider medical privacy protections put in place at the end of the Clinton administration that would limit the information health care providers can divulge without a patient’s consent. This marked a victory for the health care industry, which had been urging such an action. The delay of the standards was mostly the fault of the Clinton administration. Under the Congressional Review Act, a rule takes effect 60 days after it is submitted to Congress for review. In this case, however, Clinton’s HHS forgot to submit the privacy protections – which were later submitted by Bush’s HHS, and are now scheduled to take effect on April 14. What’s most troubling is that Thompson has opened the final rule for additional public comment. The Clinton administration received more than 50,000 comments – including many from the health care industry – after it proposed the standard in November of 1999. It’s difficult to see what new information Thompson hopes to gain. Instead, this action seems a clear sign that the administration has already decided to revise the privacy protections, perhaps to suit the interests of the health care industry. The new comments will likely be used to justify reopening the rulemaking. The administration may want to further delay the privacy protections past April 14 while it undertakes a new rulemaking to revise the rule. However, there is a statutory deadline in place – already lapsed – that will likely discourage this action. Moreover, the rule leaves a number of years for implementation. If the administration were to undertake a new rulemaking, this would indicate to affected industry that they would not need to take steps to come into compliance with the rule.