Private Health Records: Privacy Implications of the Federal Government's Health Information Technology Initiative

Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia

Thursday, February 1, 2007
02:30 PM

In 2004, President Bush called for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop and implement a strategic plan to guide the nationwide implementation of Health Information Technology (HIT). The plan also called for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to leverage its power with the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) to increase the use of HIT.

This hearing will review the efforts of HHS to integrate privacy into the HIT national infrastructure and OPM’s efforts to expand the use of HIT through the FEHBP and the impact such actions have on federal employees’ health information privacy.

Witnesses

Panel 1

• Dr. Rob Kolodner [view testimony]
  Interim National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Mr. Daniel Green [view testimony]
  Deputy Associate Director, Center for Employee and Family Support Policy
  Office of Personnel Management

Panel 2

• Mr. David Powner [view testimony]
  Director of Information Technology Management Issues
  Government Accountability Office
• Accompanied by: Ms. Linda Koontz
  Director of Information Management Issues
  Government Accountability Office
• Mr. Mark Rothstein [view testimony]
  Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine; and Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law
  University of Louisville School of Medicine
• Dr. Carol Diamond [view testimony]
  Managing Director
  Markle Foundation