Denver ? Hospital patients soon will have the authority to decide how much of their personal information can be released to friends, relatives, the clergy and even the general public.

Federal rules that take effect April 14 will prohibit disclosure of information for reasons unrelated to health care unless hospital workers first obtain the patient’s permission.

That means there could be a delay in releasing information or even the withholding of information that has been readily available.

For example, news reporters typically call hospitals to get the condition of people injured in crimes and accidents. That information now will be available only if the patient agrees.

Workers who violate the rules face maximum fines of $50,000 or 10 years in jail.

The rules, which will be implemented nationwide, represent the first comprehensive federal protections for health privacy and will mean a significant change in the way Colorado hospitals disseminate information.

Since 1948, Colorado hospitals have operated under a code of cooperation, providing information to relatives, friends and the news media.

The Colorado Hospital Assn., which administers the code, has a countdown clock with a death knell on its Internet site warning members that the new rules are coming.

“We’re no longer calling it a code of cooperation. I and my colleagues would never look good in prison orange,” said Sarah Ellis of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Hospitals expect many patients to reject an option for total privacy, known as opting out of the facility directory, a privilege previously offered to movie stars, domestic violence victims and others who did not want hospitals to give out any information.

That option could prevent patients from receiving flowers or allowing friends to check on their conditions, Ellis said.

The hospitals are developing procedures and forms that will protect patient identities and compiling information packets to give patients.

Lawmakers are working to change the state law to comply with the new rules.

A bill would require special authorization for release of information for patients with AIDS; disclosure of genetic information; psychotherapy notes or therapy information; disclosure of medical records; disclosure of parentage information for judicial proceedings; disclosure of artificial insemination; and any alcohol and drug abuse treatment.

The bill — Senate Bill 51 — has passed the Senate and is awaiting action in the House Appropriations Committee.

Ed Otte, executive director of the Colorado Press Assn., said media organizations were trying to craft a compromise that would allow reporters to get accurate information from a hospital.

He said he understood some of the frustration that led to the drafting of the rules.

“It is partly a result of some reporting by people who were overly aggressive and not respecting privacy. Now every reporter has been lumped into the same category and has to pay the penalty,” Otte said.