FC: HHS discards thousands of faxes on medical privacy

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I mentioned this case-of-the-disappearing-faxes in my column last week:
  http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,34126,00.html

For shame! I understand that bureaucrats may not really want to listen to 
the general public (there are few institutional incentives), but a public 
fax number should be just that.

-Declan


> From: "Melissa Thompson" <mthompson () appartners net>
> To: "Declan McCullagh (E-mail)" <declan () well com>
> Subject: Buried in the A Section this morning...
> Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 11:52:34 -0500
>
> Declan,
>
> This article was buried in the A Section of the Washington Post this
> morning.  If it's true that the HHS provided a fax number as a means for the
> public to opine, then the HHS should have made every effort to include those
> opinions in their consideration.  The same goes for email.  If a government
> agency provides an email address to which the public can opine, then the
> correspondence on email should carry the same weight as the requested paper
> correspondence in triplicate!!!  UNLESS the HHS makes clear that fax or
> email correspondence will not be weighed equally (not that that's fair, but
> if that is the case...), the correspondence SHOULD carry the same weight.
>
> I am a consultant who spends time with political and grassroots clients
> figuring out ways to open lines of communication online.  The government
> needs to get with the program for this new form of democracy to work!
>
> Thanks for listening,
> Melissa
>
> ********************************************
>
> A Fight Over the Fax
> HHS Rejects Comments Via ACLU on Medical Privacy
> By Ben White
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Thursday, February 10, 2000; Page A21
>
> A week from today, the period for public comment on medical privacy
> regulations drafted by the Department of Health and Human Services will end.
> But according to the American Civil Liberties Union, the public will not
> have been able to comment much.
>
> ACLU officials contend HHS disregarded thousands of faxes sent through the
> aclu web site from citizens concerned that the regulations do not go far
> enough. ACLU officials also argue that HHS generally makes it far too
> difficult for people to offer comments on important issues.
>
> HHS officials counter that the agency has never accepted public comment via
> fax and say they have a well-established mechanism for receiving comments on
> the agency's Web site or via letter.
>
> "I'm not here to say that this is generated by malice of forethought on
> their [HHS's] part. I'm just surprised by the digging in that they are doing
> in not accommodating the high level of interest on this," said Laura Murphy,
> director of the D.C. office of the ACLU.
>
> The dust-up began when President Clinton unveiled rules in October designed
> to protect the privacy of individual medical records in an era when an
> increasing amount of personal information flows easily over the Internet.
>
> While generally supportive of efforts to restrict access to medical records,
> the ACLU criticized the administration's effort as too limp in areas, from
> law enforcement access to government database creation. The group began a
> campaign on its Web site to alert people to what it saw as flaws in the
> proposed regulations.
>
> ACLU officials say they used an HHS-provided fax number for comments in a
> form on the ACLU Web site allowing individuals to send a personalized fax
> directly to the agency urging that the regulations be strengthened.
[...]


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