Medical Privacy
Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:59 pm
Model Congress --- Medical Privacy
Debate: March 24, 2010 / April 7th
“Whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men, in my attentance on the sick or even apart therefrom, which ought not be noised abroad, I will keep silence thereon, counting such things to be as sacred secrets.” – Oath of Hippocrates, 4th Century, B.C.
Today you have more reason than ever to care about the privacy of your medical information. Intimate details you revealed in confidence to your doctor were once stored in locked file cabinets and on dusty shelves in the medical records department. Now, sensitive information about your physical and mental health will almost certainly end up in data files. Your records may be seen by hundreds of strangers who work in health care, the insurance industry, and a host of businesses associated with medical organizations. What's worse, your private medical information is now a valuable commodity for marketers who want to sell you something.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by Congress in 1996 to set a national standard for electronic transfers of health data. At the same time, Congress saw the need to address growing public concern about privacy and security of personal health data. The task of writing rules on privacy eventually fell to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). After several modifications, DHHS issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule was effective on April 14, 2003, for most health care providers, health plans, and health care clearinghouses. Small plans had until April 14, 2004 to comply.
The regulation implementing the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA) was published on November 21, 2008, and became effective on January 19, 2009. PSQIA establishes a voluntary reporting system to enhance the data available to assess and resolve patient safety and health care quality issues. To encourage the reporting and analysis of medical errors, PSQIA provides Federal privilege and confidentiality protections for patient safety information called patient safety work product. Patient safety work product includes information collected and created during the reporting and analysis of patient safety events.
The confidentiality provisions will improve patient safety outcomes by creating an environment where providers may report and examine patient safety events without fear of increased liability risk. Greater reporting and analysis of patient safety events will yield increased data and better understanding of patient safety events.
OCR works in close collaboration with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) which has responsibility for listing patient safety organizations (PSOs), the external experts established by the Patient Safety Act to collect and analyze patient safety information.
Furthermore, the 2009 Stimulus Bill put into law as of 2014 a national medical database of electronic medical records and provided for creation of a government panel to decide your medical treatment options based on “comparative effectiveness” and cost effectiveness. Or, according to the administration’s website, “The Recovery Act also invests $19 billion in computerized medical records that will help to reduce costs and improve quality while ensuring patients’ privacy.”
Overall, with the new era of Internet technology, there are more challenges, but more opportunities, in the field of medical privacy. Of course,
LINKS / RESOURCES:
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_privacy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_health_record
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Ins ... bility_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Sa ... vement_Act
U.S. Government:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/Issues/health-Care
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/un ... index.html
http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/privacy-main.html
Citizens’ Organizations:
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8a-hipaa.htm
http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-libe ... al-privacy
http://epic.org/privacy/medical/polls.html
http://patientprivacyrights.org/
“News” / Commentators:
http://newsblaze.com/story/201003151106 ... story.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10161233-38.html
Debate: March 24, 2010 / April 7th
“Whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men, in my attentance on the sick or even apart therefrom, which ought not be noised abroad, I will keep silence thereon, counting such things to be as sacred secrets.” – Oath of Hippocrates, 4th Century, B.C.
Today you have more reason than ever to care about the privacy of your medical information. Intimate details you revealed in confidence to your doctor were once stored in locked file cabinets and on dusty shelves in the medical records department. Now, sensitive information about your physical and mental health will almost certainly end up in data files. Your records may be seen by hundreds of strangers who work in health care, the insurance industry, and a host of businesses associated with medical organizations. What's worse, your private medical information is now a valuable commodity for marketers who want to sell you something.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by Congress in 1996 to set a national standard for electronic transfers of health data. At the same time, Congress saw the need to address growing public concern about privacy and security of personal health data. The task of writing rules on privacy eventually fell to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). After several modifications, DHHS issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule was effective on April 14, 2003, for most health care providers, health plans, and health care clearinghouses. Small plans had until April 14, 2004 to comply.
The regulation implementing the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA) was published on November 21, 2008, and became effective on January 19, 2009. PSQIA establishes a voluntary reporting system to enhance the data available to assess and resolve patient safety and health care quality issues. To encourage the reporting and analysis of medical errors, PSQIA provides Federal privilege and confidentiality protections for patient safety information called patient safety work product. Patient safety work product includes information collected and created during the reporting and analysis of patient safety events.
The confidentiality provisions will improve patient safety outcomes by creating an environment where providers may report and examine patient safety events without fear of increased liability risk. Greater reporting and analysis of patient safety events will yield increased data and better understanding of patient safety events.
OCR works in close collaboration with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) which has responsibility for listing patient safety organizations (PSOs), the external experts established by the Patient Safety Act to collect and analyze patient safety information.
Furthermore, the 2009 Stimulus Bill put into law as of 2014 a national medical database of electronic medical records and provided for creation of a government panel to decide your medical treatment options based on “comparative effectiveness” and cost effectiveness. Or, according to the administration’s website, “The Recovery Act also invests $19 billion in computerized medical records that will help to reduce costs and improve quality while ensuring patients’ privacy.”
Overall, with the new era of Internet technology, there are more challenges, but more opportunities, in the field of medical privacy. Of course,
LINKS / RESOURCES:
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_privacy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_health_record
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Ins ... bility_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Sa ... vement_Act
U.S. Government:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/Issues/health-Care
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/un ... index.html
http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/privacy-main.html
Citizens’ Organizations:
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8a-hipaa.htm
http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-libe ... al-privacy
http://epic.org/privacy/medical/polls.html
http://patientprivacyrights.org/
“News” / Commentators:
http://newsblaze.com/story/201003151106 ... story.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10161233-38.html