Worry about privacy risks associated with EMRs could impede process
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, February 28, 2005
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
Forty-seven percent of U.S. adults say risks to the privacy of their medical information outweigh the potential benefits of electronic medical records (EMRs), according to a Harris Interactive survey of 1,012 adults.
Dr. Alan Westin, director of a new program on IT, health records, and privacy at Privacy & American Business, presented the survey findings Wednesday to HHS' National Committee on Vital Health Statistics.
Nearly three-quarters (70%) of Americans say they also worry that
- sensitive health information may leak due to weak data security
- more sharing of patients' information will take place without the patients' knowledge
- computerization could increase medical errors
- people will stop disclosing necessary information to healthcare providers because they worry about where that information will end up
- the government will reduce existing federal privacy policies in the name of efficiency
In addition, 14% of survey respondents said they thought their personal medical information had, at one time, been improperly released and 32% said they never received HIPAA Notices of Privacy Practices.
Westin stressed the importance of responding to these concerns before the public will fully support EMRs, suggesting solutions such as a privacy work group that conducts EMR risk and threat assessments, and an EMR privacy board.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- E-mailed
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- CMS has reformulated payments for some bilateral procedures
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- New conflicts of interest create new challenges
- Q/A. One injection code or two?
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Hospitals are not bound by InterQual criteria for determining patient status
- ED-to-inpatient transfers are flawed with safety gaps
- Searched