Bush to implement privacy regulations

President George Bush announced Thursday that he will implement medical privacy rules drafted by the Clinton administration. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson delayed implementing the rules for 60 days to allow for additional public comments and to consider pleas from biotech, pharmaceutical and hospital companies to modify requirements that could make it more difficult to conduct biomedical research.

Thompson told reporters that HHS received more than 24,000 written comments on the privacy rules in two months, but he said they contained little new information. "My staff has expedited the review of these comments as they have come in and generally found that most of the submissions broke down into similar categories. In fact, thousands of the comments were clearly part of mass mailing efforts in support of a particular view or concern," Thompson said. He added "we will consider any necessary modifications that will ensure the quality of care does not suffer inadvertently from this rule." ...