California’s health privacy law expands patient protections beyond those established by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. However, in some cases the recent federal economic stimulus legislation provides stronger protections than those provided by California. In this policy briefing, the presenters discussed the interactions of the privacy provisions.

The speakers were:

• Deven McGraw, director, Center for Democracy and Technology
• Jonah Frohlich, California Health and Human Services Agency

Highlights of the presentation were:

• McGraw provided a comprehensive overview of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, HIPAA, and enhancements to both brought about by the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) — particularly Title XIII of ARRA, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
• Frohlich noted that ARRA/HITECH resulted in a 600% increase in the electronic health record marketplace overnight, and that patient privacy and providers acting in good faith both need to be protected.
• Frohlich also outlined the administration’s approach to develop standards and policies to allow for multiple systems to respond to unique provider needs.

The presentation slides are available under Document Downloads.

The complete issue brief is available under Related CHCF Pages.