New law could affect the reporting of injuries in college athletics

Releasing information about athletes’ injuries could become illegal beginning next spring due to a new law.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is meant to allow workers to keep their health insurance when they change jobs, and it has a privacy section that goes into effect April 14.

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The law, which wasn’t intended to impact college athletics, has many schools taking precautionary measures before it goes into effect.

“We’re just being very cautious about what we say,” said SIU head trainer Ed Thompson.

Most universities are handling the changes the same way:by being very vague about injuries until the player gives his or her consent to release the information.

Thompson said SIU will only identify the body part injured and that player’s chances of playing in the next game.

SIU running back Tom Koutsos gave permission for information about his season-ending wrist injury last month to be released to the media, voiding the law’s effect.

Using the Koutsos’ case as an example, Thompson said, “we would have said right forearm, doubtful.”

Beginning next April, if the University releases injury information without permission, it would risk the loss of federal funds.

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Football fans may have already noticed the changes when watching games on television.

During more than one nationally televised game, fans were not given specific information about the injuries of players. Thompson believes that fans have a right to know about athletes’ injuries.

The effect that the new law will have on college athletics is still being ironed out, but many people believe injury reporting will return to normal in time.

SIU’s legal counsel and Health Services Clinic are working on a policy for the University’s trainers and media services representatives to follow.

“I think eventually it’s not going to effect us as much as it sounds like it is,” Thompson said.

A representative from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also concurred with Thompson’s opinion about the future of the law.

“I doubt seriously that information the way it’s currently issued will change substantially,” said Claude Allen, deputy secretary of HHS, in a story in the USA Today.

Until the specifics are determined, athletic trainers across the country are being cautious and waiting for a set of rules to be given to them.

“I don’t have a great understanding and I haven’t been given enough information,” Thompson said.

So for now, fans may just be left in the dark regarding the health of their favorite player.

Reporter Ethan Erickson can be reached at [email protected]