In a drive to inoculate people against swine flu before winter, many European governments say they will fast-track the testing of a vaccine, arousing concern among some experts about safety and proper doses. The European Medicines Agency, the EU's top drug regulatory body, is accelerating the approval process for swine flu vaccine, and countries such as Britain, Greece, France and Sweden say they'll start using the vaccine after it's greenlighted—possibly within weeks.
U.S. health officials say swine flu could strike up to 40% of Americans over the next two years and as many as several hundred thousand could die if a vaccine campaign and other measures aren't successful. Those estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mean about twice the number of people who usually get sick in a normal flu season would be struck by swine flu. Officials said those projections would drop if a new vaccine is ready and widely available, as U.S. officials expect.
A proposal to tax insurance companies on their most-expensive policies appears to be gaining momentum in Congress and the White House, as lawmakers search for politically acceptable ways to fund a health overhaul. Republican and Democrat lawmakers suggested that the idea has broader appeal than some other funding plans that have been floated, such as taxing individuals on their employer-provided health plans, or imposing a surtax on the wealthiest Americans.
So-called Blue Dog Democrats continued to resist key aspects of their party's healthcare overhaul, despite pressure from party leaders who fear they will endanger President Barack Obama's most ambitious legislative effort. A leader of the fiscally conservative group of representatives said he expects any vote on the House's health proposal would have to wait, likely until after Labor Day.
As President Barack Obama pushes Congress to pass a healthcare reform package in the next two weeks, South Florida employers have two main messages to the nation's top policymakers: Reduce costs and don't mess up small businesses. Doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies all have huge stakes in the outcome, as do the estimated 50 million uninsured. But so does a group that has been fairly quiet until now–the nation's employers.
President Barack Obama's push to overhaul healthcare needs Republican votes, lawmakers from both parties say. Democratic and GOP officials acknowledged that Obama's plan would not pass without the aid of a doubtful GOP, whose members are almost united against the White House effort.
Defying skeptics in her party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to overcome lingering obstacles and pass healthcare reform in the House. The speaker plans to restart talks today among bickering Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee, one of three House panels with jurisdiction over healthcare and where the bill stalled last week. Democratic leaders are newly confident that these differences can be resolved, possibly in time to bring a House bill to the floor before lawmakers depart Friday for the August recess, although Pelosi did not commit to a timetable.
The Congressional Budget Office said a new agency proposed by President Obama as a way to cut health costs might save only $2 billion in its first four years, and that there was a high probability that "no savings would be realized." The report came as Obama tried to build support for his healthcare plan, arguing that small-business owners would benefit because they could buy coverage through an insurance exchange and receive tax credits to help pay for employee health benefits.
Lawmakers and consumer groups are concerned that many Americans would not be able to afford health insurance even if they are required to have coverage. The major healthcare bills in Congress would require coverage and all of them also provide some level of assistance for lower-income people. But the question of how to make insurance affordable for all Americans is one of the difficult issues facing Congress.
Specify penalties for unauthorized access to medical records
Require organizations to report privacy breaches more quickly
Make safeguards, such as password protection, a state requirement
Assign rights to enforce patient privacy violations to a new state office, the California Office of Health Information Integrity.
"California has been on the forefront of patient/medical records privacy laws, and existing California law did not completely address the issue of unauthorized access of patient medical records by employees," says Esther Chang, JD, attorney at McDermott Will & Emery, LLP, in Los Angeles.
Last week, Kaiser was slapped with a six-figure fine for failing to secure electronic patient records from snooping employees.
Investigators say one of the eight employees caught in the latest security breach in April was also involved in the earlier breach in mid-March that involved Nadia Suleman, aka the Octomom.
Current law in California is already more stringent with regard to breach notification than the provisions in the Health Information for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, says Jana Aagaard, who is of counsel at Catholic Healthcare West in Rancho Cordova, CA.
For example, Aagaard cites the requirement that a state agency and the patient be notified of a breach within five calendar days of discovery of the breach. HITECH calls for 60.
The breach of the medical records of Maria Shriver, who is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife, all but ensured that change was coming. But some experts believe increased legislation is a bad idea that doesn't give existing laws the chance to have an effect.
"I think it's the typical knee-jerk reaction we see in all facets of government," says Kevin Beaver, CISSP, founder of Principle Logic in Acworth, GA. "Something bad happens, people complain and want to know why, and government bureaucrats think it's their duty to fix things with new laws rather than just letting existing laws be enforced."
The new laws in California may serve as insight into situations in which state governments may intervene in a more proactive manner.
"I think people are always going to do the minimum to get by," Beaver says. "This means that instituting basic information privacy and security controls will unfortunately come down to government agencies, such as the state of California forcing people into submission."
In California, the message is simple—comply, or else.
"The new laws now put the onus on healthcare providers to safeguard patient information not just from external breaches, but also from unauthorized access within their own organization," Chang says.
But will California's new laws result in real change? Beaver believes it won't change the way organizations protect information; the good organizations will continue to do a good job, and the bad ones will continue to fail.
HIPAA caused healthcare facilities to create a notice of privacy practices, secure their sign-in sheets, and document basic policies, but not much else of substance related to information security, he says.
"I see blatant violations of the HIPAA security rule all the time in my work and even when I visit the doctor," Beaver says. "It's the mentality of 'I'm going to keep doing the same old things I've been doing until I get caught.' So if many people in healthcare aren't taking [HIPAA] seriously, why would a similar state law be any different?"
