Medical Privacy Rules Face Bumpy Road

　　医护隐私条例实施难

　　New federal rules establishing the nation's first medical privacy standards are likely to cause confusion in the short run, experts say.

　　专家表示，旨在建立国内第一个医护隐私标准的新联邦法规可能在短期内并不会一帆风顺。

　　The rules dramatically change the way hospitals, doctors, health plans and pharmacies must handle personal health information. They also impose criminal and civil penalties for breaching patient privacy.

　　这些条例将极大地改变现有医院，医生，护理实施，药业对个人健康信息的处理方式。条例同时规定，如泄露病人隐私将受到民事和刑事处罚。

　　Under the rules, patients will receive notices from their providers describing their new rights. Those rights include the ability to examine their own medical records.

　　这些条例上，病人可以从他们的医护提供者处收到通知，以明了其新的权利。这包括检查自己个人医疗记录的权利。

　　The rules also give consumers limited new powers to prevent sensitive data from slipping into the wrong hands.

　　条例同时赋予消费者有限的新权利来防止个人隐私落入不法者手中。

　　They forbid healthcare providers from sharing health information with employers, for instance.

　　条例禁止健康护理提供者与其雇主共享(病人的)健康信息。

　　And unless a patient has specifically granted his or her consent, providers may not sell lists of patients to companies for marketing purposes.

　　而且除非得到病人的许可，医疗提供者不能把病人资料出售给其他公司以做商用。

　　"But there's still a lot of gray areas here, and a lot of areas," cautioned healthcare attorney Robert Falk.

　　健康护理律师Robert Falk警告说："但还是存在一些黑色地带，很多这样的地带。"

　　He cited a recent incident in which a patient sent a form requesting medical information from the patient's doctor. Because the release form did not meet the new privacy standards, the doctor won't be able to supply the requested information.

　　他举例说，一次，一位病人向其医师提交了一份查看医疗信息的请求表。但仅仅是因为请求表达不到新条例表格的要求，医生就不能向其提供所需信息。

　　"We're going to be dealing with a lot of transition issues here," Falk warned.

　　Falk警言："我们将要在这个过渡时期做许多工作。"