"The right to expect that personal health and medical record will remain private is important to all Americans," Roukema said. "I was a strong advocate of including medical privacy in the landmark financial modernization legislation we passed last year. The absence of medical privacy in that bill is a huge gap that must be filled before consumers are harmed."

 Roukema's comments came as the Banking Committee held a hearing today on H.R. 4585, the Medical Financial Privacy Act, introduced by Chairman Jim Leach, R-Iowa. The bill would take the following steps to protect medical records:

• Require financial institutions to obtain customer´s affirmative consent ("opt in") before disclosing individually identifiable health information to an affiliate or third party.
• Prohibit a financial institution from obtaining or using health information in deciding whether to issue credit, unless the prospective borrower expressly consents.
• Give special protection to mental health information, by requiring separate and specific customer consent for its disclosure. Special policies and procedures to protect its confidentiality would be encouraged.
• Give consumers the right to inspect, copy, and correct health information that is under the control of a financial institution.
• Place strict limits on the re-disclosure and reuse of health information legitimately obtained by a financial institution.
• The bill does not limit or supersede medical privacy standards set by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

In addition to supporting medical privacy at today's hearing, Roukema said her subcommittee will address broader financial privacy issues at a hearing in late July.

"The regulatory agencies have recently issued final rules implementing the privacy provisions of last year's bill," Roukema said. "It is my opinion that additional legislation relating to the privacy of financial records is not appropriate until the regulators gain some experience operating under the final rules."

 Roukema held two days of hearings on financial privacy last year as the Banking Committee reviewed the Financial Services Modernization Act.

The Financial Services Modernization Act included comprehensive privacy protections - sponsored by Roukema - that went far beyond existing law. Under the new law, consumers can "opt out" of having private information shared with third parties and financial institutions have to disclose their privacy policies to annually. "Pretext calling" - where someone uses fraudulent or deceptive means to obtain private customer information - would become a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison.