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Why is this any business of the federal government at all?

Regardless of which side of the issue is right, does the executive branch actually have constitutional authority to be even making such decisions?

Of course not! Who could possibly argue that it did? No one. Only people who argue that the Constituion doesn't matter will argue that the federal government has the right to make these laws/rules.

The way the HIPPA laws were written by the congress, it gave them a certain time line (I think it was three years,but I could be wrong on that) to write the rules and regulations. It was also written that if they failed to write the regs within that time period, that job would be transferred to Health and Human services (at that time Donna Schalla) to be approved by the President (again at that time Bill Clinton). Congress failed (suprise,suprise) to do its job within the time period, and it was passed on.

When Bill Clinton unveilled his list of regs, doctors around the country were up in arms, because most of them were unworkable. There were things written in their that would have, for instance, made it illegal for you to go to the pharmacy and pick up you wifes prescription. Or made it illegal for your doctor to call a specialist on your behalf and set up an appointment for you without you first signing a consent form, having it sent to the specialist, and having them keeping it on file, before they could even get your name to set up the appointment. Once you saw the specialist, you would then need to sign another consent form and have it sent back to your original physician, before the specialist could even call your physician and tell him what he thought of your condition.

Just imagine what these regs would mean to your care, if you were being treated in an Emergancy Room, and having to sign all these forms every time you saw another provider.

When President Bush came into office, he put a hold on all of these regulations, and opened a comment period in which physicians and other Healthcare workers could comment on what changes they wanted. And these are regs that you are seeing now.

So after all of that said, that is why it was put in the executive offices hands. (you can thank congress for that)