[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3064 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3064

  To prohibit the use of patient databases for marketing without the 
                    express consent of the patient.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 7, 2002

  Mr. Nelson of Florida introduced the following bill; which was read 
 twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit the use of patient databases for marketing without the 
                    express consent of the patient.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Health Records Confidentiality Act 
of 2002''.

 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Individually identifiable health information.--The term 
        ``individually identifiable health information'' means 
        information that is a subset of health information, including 
        demographic information collected from an individual, that--
                    (A) is created or received from a health care 
                provider, health plan, employer, or health care 
                clearinghouse;
                    (B) relates to the past, present, or future 
                physical or mental health or condition of an 
                individual, the provision of health care to an 
                individual, or the past, present or future payment for 
                the provision of health care to an individual; and
                    (C)(i) identifies the individual; or
                    (ii) with respect to which there is a reasonable 
                basis to believe that the information can be used to 
                identify the individual.
            (2) Marketing.--The term ``marketing'' means to make a 
        communication about a product or service to encourage 
        recipients of the communication to purchase or use the product 
        or service, but does not include communications made as part of 
        the treatment of a patient for the purpose of furthering 
        treatment unless the covered entity receives direct or indirect 
        remuneration from a third party for making the communication.

SEC. 3. PROTECTION OF PRIVATE HEALTH INFORMATION.

    Except in accordance with section 4, a health care provider, 
pharmacy, health researcher, health plan, health oversight agency, 
public health authority, employer, health or life insurer, or school or 
university shall not--
            (1) disclose individually identifiable health information 
        to an entity for marketing the products or services of such 
        entity; or
            (2) use individually identifiable health information in its 
        possession to provide marketing services to any entity.

SEC. 4. NOTICE AND CONSENT REQUIREMENTS.

    A health care provider, pharmacy, health researcher, health plan, 
health oversight agency, public health authority, employer, health or 
life insurer, or school or university may provide marketing services to 
a pharmaceutical company if such health care entity--
            (1) provides clear and conspicuous notice to the individual 
        involved concerning its disclosure practices for all 
        individually identifiable health information collected or 
        created with regard to the individual; and
            (2) obtains the consent of the individual involved to use 
        the information and that consent is manifested by an 
        affirmative act in a written communication which only 
        references and applies to the specific marketing purpose for 
        which the information is to be used.
                                 <all>