How does the Ethical Force consensus report compare to the recently released HHS regulations on health information privacy?
The HHS regulations are complex and there are many potential points of comparison. But it is most important to note that the Ethical Force process preceded the development of the federal regulations and that Ethical Force addresses privacy and confidentiality from the point of view of providing ethical guidance rather than a regulatory or legal framework. The Ethical Force program® in general should be recognized as a collaborative effort to address areas of health care ethics that are not merely legal or regulatory issues — the ethical issues that Ethical Force is addressing are important to promote and preserve the trust that must be at the heart of health care. Therefore, whether or not specific actions are or are not legal according to state or federal rules was not directly relevant to the development of the consensus report, which addresses legitimate ethical — and not simply legal — expectations.
