After five years of wrangling, federal government finalizes medical privacy rules. (Internet Law Update).

The federal government has finally approved new health care privacy rules that have been in the works for more than five years. On August 9, 2002, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced new regulatory changes that will affect nearly every doctor, patient, health insurance company, and hospital in the United States. While the new rules will not satisfy all parties, they do represent a step in the right direction to securing private medical information from the most crass marketing methods. Perhaps the most controversial change was the abandonment of the opt-in requirement from patients before health care providers could release medical information for …