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Saint Louis News - "All the news that is Saint Louis"
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  Gov Holden Promotes Technology At Festus Elementary SchoolSmall Towns and Villages Appeal to US TravelersWestin St. Louis Opens at Cupples Station ComplexLamkin Will Succeed Joyner-Kerseeas Sports Commission Chair American Airlines Announces TWA Buyout |
American Airlines Receives Approval For Acquisition of TWA ST. LOUIS, (PRNewswire), APRIL 6, 2001 - American Airlines announced Friday that it had received notice that the United States Department of Transportation has approved the transfer of passenger certificates from Trans World Airlines, Inc. to American Airlines and its subsidiary, TWA Airlines LLC. This transfer, which includes interstate and foreign scheduled passenger certificates and other authorities currently issued to TWA, represents the successful completion of another step in American's acquisition of TWA. Donald J. Carty, chairman and CEO of America Airlines, said, "We're gratified by DOT's quick response to our application for the transfer of these certificates. The Department's action affirms the benefits of this transaction to the flying public and recognizes TWA's position as a failing carrier. This transaction protects thousands of TWA jobs and will create tremendous new career opportunities for TWA and American employees. It also will allow us to provide an even broader network for our customers. We look forward to closing this transaction on Monday." American Airlines and its regional airline affiliate, American Eagle, together serve more than 240 cities in 49 countries and operate approximately 4,100 daily flights. American Airlines, which traces its beginnings to 1926, today operates a fleet of 720 modern jetliners and employs more than 103,000 people worldwide. American Airlines and American Eagle are both wholly owned by AMR Corp.  See related: TWA Pilots Reach Agreements With TWA Airlines LLC Nixon Blasts Section of Federal Law Allowing Patients' Medical Information to be Used for Marketing JEFFERSON CITY, (SLFP.com), APRIL 1, 2001 - Saying that the privacy rights of medical patients far exceed any right of health care providers to sell patient information for marketing purposes, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said in a release that he was extremely concerned about new language included in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services standards that would permit patient records to be bought and sold without the patient's consent or knowledge. Nixon and 35 other Attorneys General from around the country sent a letter Thursday (March 29) to Tommy Thompson, Secretary of HHS, expressing their "grave concerns" over new language inserted by HHS into Privacy Regulation Establishing Standards to Protect Patients' Medical Records under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. "HHS has created an Orwellian situation where the very section intended to protect patient privacy is instead creating a broad avenue for records to be used as a marketing commodity," Nixon said. "This new marketing section - which was never provided by HHS for public comment as part of the proposed rule - needs to be taken out. HHS needs to stop heeding the entreaties of drug manufacturers, chain drug stores and HMOs and start asserting the privacy rights of medical patients." The new language in Section 164.514(e) states: However, the final rule permits an alternative arrangement: the covered entity can engage in health-related marketing on behalf of a third-party, presumably for a fee. Moreover, the covered entity could retain another party, through a business associate relationship, to conduct the actual health-related marketing, such as mailings or telemarketing, under the covered entity's name. Nixon and the other Attorneys General told Secretary Thompson that: Thus, while the entire thrust of the privacy rule is to protect patients' medical records, the marketing section wipes out that protection for the most egregious of purposes: disclosure and use of a patient's protected medical records for solicitations, including telemarketing solicitations, to the patient without the patient's knowledge or approval... ...We believe that with the inclusion of the marketing section, the privacy rule indeed gives the public a false assurance of privacy. We think the public will be outraged once they understand that HHS confers protection for their medical records with one hand and eliminates that protection with the other. The marketing section permits a covered entity (either on its own behalf or on behalf of a third-party who is permitted to pay the covered entity) or a covered entity's business associate to use and disclose all of a patient's "protected" medical information, which could include information about diagnoses, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, mental health treatments and confidential communications. The marketing section is broad enough to permit marketing to children using the children's protected medical information... ...(W)e urge the immediate deletion of the portion of Section 164.514(e) that permits the use of protected health information for marketing purposes unless the individual has previously given his/her affirmative, informed consent. Without this change, we will be left with a system in which there is less protection for an individual's sensitive medical information than for his/her video rental records. In addition to deleting the marketing section, the Attorneys General also urged Secretary Thompson not to delay the effective date of the regulations that do protect patient privacy past April 14, 2001.
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