CDT Issue Brief: Impact of Health Privacy Law Changes in California

The California Healthcare Foundation has published a major issue brief by Deven McGraw, director of CDT’s Health Privacy Project, which analyzes the health privacy landscape in California before 2009 and changes made by enactment of recent improvements to both California and federal health privacy laws. As electronic medical records become more widely used in the changing U.S. health care environment, will consumer privacy be at risk in the process? McGraw’s paper examines numerous improvements in federal health privacy law, but also notes significant gaps in privacy protection that deserve further attention from state and federal policymakers.