Federal regulators received thousands of pages of comments from hundreds of organizations about proposed modifications to the HIPAA privacy, security and enforcement rules.
My fingers are crossed that the final version of the federal breach notification rule greatly clarifies when a breach has to be reported to the individuals affected as well as federal authorities.
This week's top news and views: Governing Health Data Exchange; Improving Patients' Access to Records; Patient Consent: A Closer Look. And don't miss our audio week-in-review podcast by Howard Anderson, managing editor.
The Markle Foundation's "blue-button" concept for enabling patients to download their records from a secure website is suitable for a wide variety of healthcare organizations, says Josh Lemieux, the foundation's director of personal health technology.
Enabling the national exchange of electronic health records will require a formal governance system to monitor whether the players are abiding by the same rules.
Hospitals and physician group practices applying for federal incentive payments for using electronic health records must carefully address privacy as well as security issues, says Kelly McLendon, president of Health Information Xperts.
Detailed patient consent recommendations that a privacy and security "tiger team" recently completed are just a starting point toward giving patients far more control over their healthcare information, the co-chair of the team acknowledges.
Educating staff about keeping protected health information off social media should be a high priority, much like education about sexual harassment, discrimination or any other behavior with zero tolerance.
Just as most financial institutions have implemented security measures to protect access to customers' accounts and personal data, it is just a matter of time before healthcare organizations will be required to do the same.
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