Eastern Iowan to testify before congressional gun violence committee

DES MOINES – The wife of an Eastern Iowa gun violence victim will testify Friday before a congressional committee hearing on gun violence and mental health.

Jan Thomas, wife of the late Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas, accepted an invitation from 1

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District U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley to testify before a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Ed Thomas, who coached the Aplington-Parkersburg football team, was shot to death in June 2009 by a former student with a history of mental illness. That student, Mark Becker, had been released from a Waterloo hospital after a psychiatric evaluation less than 24-hours prior to the shooting.

The hearing, titled “Does HIPAA Help or Hinder Patient Care and Public Safety?” will examine whether the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act's (HIPAA) privacy rules interfere with the timely and continuous flow of health information between health care providers, patients, and families, and whether these rules can impede patient care and put public safety at risk.

“Victims of gun violence, like the Thomas family in Parkersburg, play an important role in conversations about reducing gun violence,” Braley said Wednesday. “This debate must address the breakdown of our mental health system and how it has impacted gun violence.”

Improving mental health services “won't end gun violence in our country, but it's a start,” he said.