The AHA today called for swift action to modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's requirement that health care providers keep records of mandatory disclosures of medical information to public health authorities. The AHA, writing to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, cited concerns about the burden of complying with the requirement and its potential to interfere with important public health initiatives such as voluntary reporting on disease patterns and quality measures, and said that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in September urged that the rule be changed immediately. Instead of requiring providers to track individual disclosures as they occur, the rule should require that privacy notices inform patients that their information will be disclosed to public health authorities when required by law, the GAO said. The AHA urged HHS to issue "without delay" a rule that is consistent with the GAO recommendation and with an earlier AHA proposal outlining the categories of disclosures the association believes should be exempted from the HIPAA requirement. The AHA noted that the GAO said such a modification would ensure protection of patients' privacy "without imposing unnecessary costs or barriers to quality health care or interfering with other important public benefits." The letter is available at <http://www.aha.org> under "What's New."