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First I would like to commend Psychiatric News for its excellent coverage of the current assault on medical privacy by government and industry.
Unfortunately, an inaccurate quote was attributed to me in the August 15 issue. The quote suggested that the Committee on Confidentiality and APA believe that it is the unwillingness to add special protections for records of psychiatric and substance abuse treatment "that opens the door for employers and insurance companies to discriminate on the basis of sensitive personal and medical information."
In fact, APA has been very clear that especially sensitive information can reside in many different parts of the medical record - not just the two mentioned above - and must all be protected by allowing the patient to control access. Dr. Ken Hoge stated in his testimony for APA before Congress that "[i]t is. . .trust and confidentiality that allow a full exchange of needed information between doctor and patient on sensitive issues, such as cancer treatment fertility and sexual function problems, treatment of heart attack victims, as well as the identification and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases."
Our APA leadership has been clear that this is a time that we must join our forces with the AMA in our fight for medical privacy. The public is with us in this fight for confidentiality - the soul of the doctor-patient relationship and the cornerstone of quality care.
Denise M. Nagel, M.D.
Chair
APA Committee on Confidentiality
Executive Director, National Coalition for Patient Rights