AHCJ objects to Ill. agency withholding enrollment figures

COLUMBIA, MO. – AHCJ's board of directors has sent a letter to Barry S. Maram, director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services stating its strong objection to that department's decision to withhold county-level enrollment figures for All Kids, Medicaid and other state-run health programs.

Dean Olsen, health care reporter at The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., recently requested the statistics to use in a package of stories about Gov. Rod Blagojevich's efforts to expand state-subsidized health insurance to all uninsured and underinsured children in Illinois. His request was denied on the grounds it would violate the privacy rules enacted as part of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Read more about the situation.

AHCJ contends the agency's position that the release of such information would violate HIPAA is unfounded and that the law was not intended to block the release of data that the public needs to assess the impact of public programs.

AHCJ also disagrees with the assertion that the release of enrollment figures would violate the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, which guarantees Illinois citizens "full and complete information regarding the affairs of government" and states, "Such access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest."

"The Department's decision is outrageous, and its interpretation of privacy makes no sense," says Trudy Lieberman, president of the Association of Health Care Journalists, and director of the Health and Medicine Reporting Program at the Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York.

"It appears that state officials are hiding behind HIPAA to avoid scrutiny of their programs. Journalists everywhere should be looking at county-level data and finding out if kids are really being helped by SCHIP and Medicaid programs, especially in light of SCHIP reauthorization legislation that is moving through Congress."

AHCJ calls on the Illinios Department of Healthcare and Familiy Services to immediately release county-level enrollment data to journalists and other members of the public who seek it.

AHCJ is an independent, nonprofit membership organization of more than 1,000 health reporters and editors across the United States. It is dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues and improving the quality, accuracy and visibility of health reporting, writing and editing.