Stimulus Bill Preserves Therapist-Client Privacy
February 20th, 2009
The recent passage of the Obama administration’s stimulus bill, or, if you prefer, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, holds a significant amount of promise in the quest to invigorate the national economy and to help people more comfortably wade through the fallout of the financial crisis. But thanks to the work of a few legislators as well as the historical importance of the issue and those who have fought for their rights in the past, the bill is also set to invigorate a topic close to the heart of meaningful psychotherapy: privacy. A small yet important victory for mental health care providers as well as their clients, this measure has been met with enthusiastic cheer by the American Psychoanalytic Association as well as professionals associated with the New England Journal of Medicine.
As part of an initiative to move medical records forward in tandem with modern technology, the bill specifies that patients shall have the right to obtain their own medical records via an electronic copy sent directly to them, helping to ensure the privacy of specifically protected information, such as psychiatric history. While the therapist-patient privilege has enjoyed a long and underscored tradition in the United States, the physical nature of medical records has left sensitive information open to interception, despite our modern capabilities to keep such information more confidential.
This recognition and re-confirming of the rights of patients and mental health professionals to engage in therapy and healing in a safe and effective context is a positive reinforcement of the importance of this issue. The measures taken to help ensure that confidentiality and privacy are allowed to evolve with modern technology reflect an understanding, competence, and compassion on the part of involved legislators that clearly brings hope to the psychiatric professions for the years to come.
© Copyright 2009 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Culver City Bureau - All Rights Reserved.
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Comments
For a layman like me I take this with mixed feelings. I happen to work with a detective agency in a clerical position and I can tell you a lot of disturbed people turn to psychiatry and crime. Its not a crime to be mentally ill but making patient records available to the law is a necessity to protect one and all sometimes.
And of course all i keep hearing about on crazy talk radio stations from right wing zealots is that this is just making our medical system more socialized. I am sorry I try not to be too political but I have to listen to these nuts every once in a while to see what they are up to and some of them were just talking about this the other day and what a bad idea it was. Why? They think that it just puts more power into the hands of the govt and of course they do not like that. I like the fact that I feel that this gives me more control over my own health care- I can not only check for mistakes but have the choice to ensure my own privacy. I just think that right now there are going to be those who oppose anything that the Obama team tries to push through simply becasue it is no longer their guy in office anymore.
Just one more victory that the administration continues to push through. Seems like more is getting done in this 1st month than the last eight years with Bush.
I agree with Jason. Obama is atleast making serious efforts to ease the situation in America today. The Bush administration needs a commendation for driving the world to a point of no return. Well Bush did say, “Someone’s got to pay”. We all definitely are paying the price literally.
Happy to see that finally people are taking notice of just how bad things were and that many of us are hopping on board to change things for the better. Hope that kind of attitude lasts!
But is it doing anything to help people who need mental health care but cannot afford it?
I am glad some things are working well. It will take a lot of effort to see this country back on its feet. There is a start in a lot of things that is promising.
Things were bad and a lot of people blame it on Bush… I am happy just to see Obama trying to clean this mess up, whether or not we believe it’s the right way or not… at least our new president is trying to relieve a lot of mess that Busch left behind.
I agree as well with Jason… Obama is jumping right in there to help all of us in this time of need. He did not waste any time.
I agree our president Obama is headed in the right direction.. Keeping my fingers cross that this is all going to be for the good and work out for us.
I just started to see the increase in my check due to the stimulus package. My concern is, the Federal Chart had been amended to take out less for Federal.. It’s based on a married couple getting $800.00 for the year, I believe and $400.00 for single. How will this affect us at the end of the year? It seems to me that we will be PAYING in to Federal instead of receiving. If you pay less in Federal taxes at the end of the year it’s going to come back and bite us.
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