Health‑information professionals and vendors warn SB 475 could create operational and compliance burdens
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Summary
Representatives of Sharecare and health‑information groups told the Judiciary Committee that SB 475’s medical‑records provisions underestimate the complexity of records retrieval and verification and risk privacy and HIPAA problems without staff and process safeguards.
Elizabeth Delahoussay, chief privacy officer at Sharecare Health Data Solutions, testified that SB 475 misunderstands how medical records are accessed and disclosed. She told the Judiciary Committee that patient records often live across multiple electronic systems and paper legacy files and require legal and compliance review before release — especially for reproductive‑health information protected by Connecticut’s Reproductive Freedom Act.
"S B 4 75 is actually predicated on a misunderstanding of how medical records are accessed and validated and disclosed in practice," Delahoussay said, warning the proposed statutory changes could create administrative burdens and compliance risks for health‑care providers and business associates.
Elizabeth McElhenney (legislative affairs director, Alliance for Health Information Operations and Standards) told the committee that release‑of‑information professionals and trained staff are necessary to identify highly protected material (for example, domestic‑violence or sexual‑assault treatment notes) and to coordinate cross‑system retrieval; she said fee structures and staffing must be considered before changing judicial rules or fees.
Committee members asked about how fee changes would affect access and whether trained professionals could be retained under any new fee schedule; witnesses urged careful drafting and consultation with health‑information professionals to avoid inadvertent privacy harms.
The committee took the testimony and will consider the concerns as it drafts any amendments to SB 475.
