Now the misguided privacy law is putting US researchers at a disadvantage. Way to go HIPAA!

Nearly 70 percent of clinical scientists in a national survey said U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA, enacted in 2003, has made research more difficult, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Almost 40 percent of those surveyed said HIPAA has added to the cost of research and half said it has slowed the pace of research.

“HIPAA is adversely affecting our ability to conduct biomedical research,” Dr. Roberta Ness of the University of Pittsburgh said in a statement.