101 A substantial barrier to improving the quality of care and access to care is the lack of enforceable privacy rules.
Individuals share a great deal of sensitive, personal information with their doctors.
This information is then shared with others, such as insurance companies, pharmacies, researchers, and employers, for many reasons. Yet unlike other personal information, there is very little legal protection for medical records. Without adequate privacy protections, individuals take steps to shield themselves from what they consider harmful and intrusive uses of their health information often at significant cost to their health. Congress has tried to pass a comprehensive federal law protecting the confidentiality of medical records but has been unable to come to consensus. Below are some introductory materials on health privacy.