Feds scrap consent form plans

Page 9

Remember that March 1 deadline for signing a government consent form or doing without non-insured health care? Forget about it. The deadline is history. The government has changed its mind.

The government has scrapped the universal, national consent form after facing an aggressive lobby against it by First Nations and Inuit leaders and much suspicion from people that the data collected with the form would be used to undermine health care entitlements.

Last year when Health Canada's Non-Insured Health Branch (NIHB) was pushing the form, director general Leslie MacLean said there were very specific goals the form was designed to achieve-help pay the bills, predict trends in medical services and share information with health care professionals to protect people's safety. There was also a requirement under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act that had to be met, she said.

The goal of NIHB has now been articulated as such: to monitor clients for unusually high prescription drug use and seek to identify "individuals of concern." Those who use a lot of prescription drugs without a legitimate reason will be asked to sign consent forms.

Rather than call the new development a reversal of position, Health Canada called it a new approach to the consent initiative.

"Under this new approach, the NIHB program will not require a signed consent form for day-to-day processing activities and program administration. NIHB clients will therefore continue to receive benefits for which they are eligible even if they have not signed a consent form," a government release stated.

"Several factors have made this new approach possible. These include an evolving privacy environment, feedback from First Nations, Inuit and other stakeholders, and insights gained during the past three years. This approach respects the privacy rights of clients and is consistent with current privacy legislation."

The government statement also said, "One of the keys to this approach to privacy is providing clients with clear information on how and why their personal health information will be collected, used and protected. Health Canada will continue its privacy awareness efforts in collaboration with First Nations and Inuit to ensure that clients know how their information is used and protected."

About 160,000 Non-Insured Health Benefit clients-out of about 735,000-have signed the consent form. Those people who have signed can let their consent form stand, or they can withdraw their written consent.