,,ii  #aafth ,,congress  #b;d ,session  
,s4 #diij  ,,in ,,the ,,senate ,,of     
,,the ,,united ,,states  ,december #i1  
#bjbj,mr4 ,cassidy introduced the       
following bill2 which was read twice and
 referred to the ,committee on ,health1 
,education1 ,labor1 and ,pensions  ,a   
,,bill  ,to require the ,office for     
,civil ,rights of the ,department of    
,health and ,human ,services to conduct 
a study and issue a report on the       
de-identification of data pursuant to   
privacy regulations4  #a4 ,short title  
,this ,act may be cited as the ,health  
,data ,de-identification ,report ,act4  
#b4 ,study and report by the ,,hhs      
,office for ,civil ,rights  7a7 ,in     
general ,the ,office for ,civil ,rights 
of the ,department of ,health and ,human
 ,services1 in cooperation with the     
,national ,institute of ,standards and  
,technology1 shall conduct a study that 
considers and compares the effectiveness
 and validity of safe harbor and expert 
determination as methods of carrying out

 the de-identification of data required 
under section #afd4ead of title #de1    
,code of ,federal ,regulations 7as in   
effect on the date of enactment of this 
,act71 and shall submit to ,congress a  
report on such study not later than #bgj
 days of the date of enactment of this  
,act4  7b7 ,content of study and report 
,the study and report under subsection  
7a7 shall consider-- 7#a7 any known     
instances where data that was           
de-identified as required under section 
#afd4ead of title #de1 ,code of ,federal
 ,regulations 7as in effect on the date 
of enactment of this ,act7 became       
re-identified1 even partially1 and1 with
 respect to each such instance1 how such
 re-identification occurred and any harm
 incurred by any individual whose data  
was re-identified2  7#b7 the frequency  
by which each of the safe harbor method 
and the expert determination method is  
used for the de-identification of data  
as described in subsection 7a71 and the 
sizes of the data sets on which each    

such method is used2  7#c7 the costs of 
each such method of de-identification1  
and the relative utility of the data    
that is de-identified through each such 
method2  7#d7 which of the #b methods of
 de-identification renders data less    
likely to be easily re-identifiable2    
7#e7 whether either such method removes 
information that would help address     
health care disparities1 thereby making 
it more difficult to address such       
disparities2  7#f7 which of the #b      
methods is most commonly used for       
purposes of medical research1 and the   
benefits and disadvantages of using each
 such method for such purpose2  7#g7 the
 risk of re-identification by each of   
the #b methods1 especially when the     
resulting de-identified dataset will be 
accessible by entities that have access 
to additional data2  7#h7 whether or not
 there are use cases that cannot be     
performed using data de-identified by   
either of the #b methods2 and  7#i7 the 
ease or difficulty of expert            

determination1 taking into consideration
 cost1 accessibility1 and qualifications
 of experts4