The APsaA will be among numerous national medical and legal organizations represented at a national meeting on confidentiality in November 1974. The mushrooming issue is receiving particular attention in the face of seemingly inevitable computerization of health records in data banks, increasing participation of third party payers, and the prospect of National Health Insurance in the near future.
The planned three day conference will be held on November 6 to 9, 1974, in Key Biscayne, Florida. Small discussion groups and plenary sessions will be devoted to such interrelated problems as: the development of PSRO, peer-review and utilization review; “informed voluntary consent;” the formulation of a model state law designed to protect confidentiality; medical records and litigation, the scheduled destruction of records, and providing for access to records by patients; confidentiality and third party payers in health insurance programs; minimal records for computers vs therapeutic records for patient management; identification of patients from computer data; health records of children and their families; the possible need for research, and the need for and structure of, a national commission for the preservation of confidentiality of health records.
The APsaA will be represented by Mrs. Helen Fischer and by the Chairman of the Joint Ad Hoc Committee on Confidentiality of the Board and Council, Jerome S. Beigler of Chicago. They would appreciate receiving ideas or suggestions from members
that they may then contribute to the conference.
July 9, 1974
William Merrill for the prosecution asked John Ehrlichman if he has heard of the Doctor-patient privilege in law. Yes, he replied. Does he not think this would apply to a psychiatrist and his patient? Ehrlichman answered: “I don't know, I haven't briefed that.”