CDT & Markle Comments requesting a revised harm standard

The Markle's Connecting for Health Initiative has since 2002 brought together leading government, industry, and health care experts to accelerate the development of a health information-sharing environment to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care, while protecting privacy. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), through its Health Privacy Project, promotes comprehensive privacy and security policies to protect health data as information technology is increasingly used to support the exchange of health information. Markle, and CDT, along with those listed at the end of this letter, submit these comments in response to the interim final rule (IFR) establishing requirements for notification of breaches of unsecured protected health information and request for comments issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).