Will NHIN Stop Privacy Erosion?
Unfortunately, too many Americans do not realize their health privacy is in real danger.
Hospital personnel often mistakenly refuse to release information for fear of violating the misunderstood Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s strictures on privacy protection. When families hear this, they mistakenly believe that HIPAA protects privacy.
Frequently not understood is that, despite the expressed intentions of President Bush and the Congress to protect patient privacy, the Department of Health and Human Services promulgated a rule in 2002 which stated: “The consent provisions…are replaced with a new provision…that provides regulatory permission for covered entities to use and disclose protected health information for treatment, payment, and health care operations.†(“Operations†can be a widely defined term.) Translated, your health records can be sold by a HMO or hospital to pharmaceutical companies, data aggregating firms, insurance companies, medical suppliers, and whoever else can think up a perceived connection to health care.
The modern version of the Hippocratic Oath states: “I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.†Now that concept of trust between patient and provider is in danger of eroding, particularly if Congress authorizes a National Health Information Network without stringent privacy protections and does not rewrite HIPAA.
Stephen M. Lilienthal
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About the Author
Paul McCloskey is editor-in-chief of Government Health IT magazine.