MINNEAPOLIS, July 23, 2008—The American Civil Liberties Union has urged the House Energy and Commerce Committee to require patient control of medical records and compensation for privacy breaches to be a part of the standards set for converting to electronic patient records.

The ACLU cautions that H.R. 6357, the “Protecting Records, Optimizing Treatment, and Easing Communication through Healthcare Technology Act of 2008” or the PRO(TECH)T Act, has insufficient privacy provisions and leaves patients vulnerable to bad, lost, stolen or misused data.

In addition, the ACLU urges the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health to consider how privacy protections will be built into new, high-tech health systems as it hears testimony this Thursday.

The subcommittee announced that protecting patient privacy and information security would be among the issues discussed at its July 24 hearing regarding health information technology. Other issues include potential costs and benefits, clinical capabilities and incentive effectiveness.