Healthcare in the National Privacy Law Debate

Conclusion Despite the importance of the healthcare industry, the HIPAA Rules, and health information to the overall debate about individual privacy, healthcare has not been a leading factor in the current national privacy legislative debate. This is unfortunate and can lead to problems for both the healthcare industry and a variety of other stakeholders interested in healthcare data and the privacy of this data.  The HIPAA rules — because of their detail and our broad experience with them since their implementation  — can provide some useful experience in evaluating the national debate, particularly in the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s approach to consent and the use and disclosure of covered information.  In general, the healthcare industry and most relevant stakeholders are comfortable with the HIPAA Rules’ approach and the overall impact of the rules on the operation of the healthcare industry and the protection of patient data. Despite this comfort, the healthcare industry and these other stakeholders (including government, employers, researchers, patients and general consumers) need to consider what the next phase of privacy protection for health information should be.  The current status quo — where the protection of health information depends dramatically on who holds the information — likely may persist in a national privacy law setting.  That has important implications for consumers and for the healthcare industry. These differing s...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Data Health Policy The Health Data Goldilocks Dilemma: Sharing? Privacy? Both? HIPAA Kirk Nahra Source Type: blogs