Under the rules, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers must obtain written consent from the patients before using or disclosing medical information even for routine purposes like treatment or the payment of claims. Patients would, for the first time, have a federal right to inspect and copy their records and could propose corrections. The A.C.L.U. and the American Psychoanalytic Association had threatened to sue the government if it delayed the rules. The rules were mandated by statute, and the administration could not ignore an unequivocal directive from Congress, which said the rules should have been issued by Feb. 21, 2000. The public wants privacy protections.
People feel their privacy is being eroded by increased computerization of medical records.