Proposal for Health Care ID System May Be Shelved

The Clinton administration intends to delay a controversial proposal to give every American a unique health identifier, a move that would give officials time to examine the impact it could have on medical privacy, White House officials and several privacy specialists said Wednesday.

Such an identifier would be a string of computer codes that would allow doctors, hospitals and insurers to access medical information of people virtually anywhere in the nation. It was mandated by Congress two years ago to help make the health care system more efficient.

Although little progress has been made by Department of Health and Human Services officials in creating the system, the plan has drawn sharp criticism from medical and privacy advocates, who say it could lead to vast databases and erode the confidentiality of health records. Last week, several ranking senators introduced legislation that would repeal the mandate for the codes, while a Republican-crafted patients’ rights bill that passed the House would require congressional approval of any administration plan.

Vice President Al Gore may announce the delay Friday morning, when he will address a range of privacy-related matters in a speech at the White House, senior White House advisors said.

“Clearly, the administration is not going to implement this identifier until there is meaningful medical privacy legislation,” one official said, adding that the House-passed Patient Protection Act of 1998 was not acceptable. “We would not even consider it.”