Most fear misuse of health records
By: CAROLYN FOX - For the North County Times | ∞
WASHINGTON ---- Most American consumers are worried about the privacy of their health records, according to a national survey conducted by the California HealthCare Foundation.
The survey, completed last summer by 2,000 participants, found that 67 percent of people are concerned about the privacy of their medical records. Half of the participants were California residents.
Local medical experts say stronger health care privacy regulations passed in 2003 have made medical information more safe and private, and that consumers' fears that their health records will be misused are generally unwarranted.
Still, the survey showed consumers worry about misuse of medical records by employers and about identity theft from medical records. A fear of losing privacy has caused patients to ask their doctor to refrain from reporting a health condition, pay out of pocket for procedures, and even stop going to the doctor altogether, according to survey results.
"Technology alone is not all there is to privacy and security. And the public knows that," said Bradford Holmes, research director at Forrester Research Inc. "There are people involved and process involved. People and process can break down."
In April 2003, the Department of Health and Human Services implemented stricter privacy measures through the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Many health care privacy issues have been resolved by the act, "but people don't realize it," said Joseph Scherger, chairman of communications for the San Diego County Medical Society.
Scherger said the public needs to be encouraged to check out HIPAA's Web site at www.hipaa.org.
In 2003, the government sent information to households nationwide about citizens' rights and protections under the act.
Since the mailings, there have been 15,000 privacy complaints filed with the government, according to Sam Karp, chief program officer of the California HealthCare Foundation. Karp said there has not been one civil prosecution.
He also said people need to be careful of what they sign. They may be giving out access to private records without knowing it.
Kim Jackson, the director of Health Information Services at Palomar Pomerado Health, said the hospital district tries to educate patients about their rights during the registration process. The district does not often receive complaints about privacy, and any complaints are addressed right away, Jackson said.
More Stories
Advertisement
Deborah wrote on Nov 11, 2005 1:57 PM:Actually the changes made to the HIPAA Privacy Rule is 2003 stripped every American of the right to decide who can see and use their medical records. Your reporter is wrong. Our records are open to use by over 600,000 businesses and corporations without our consent, even if we object, and without any audit trails. See wwww.patientprivacyrights.org for mopre info on what happened and what you can do about it.
Anonymous wrote on Nov 15, 2005 9:50 AM:HIPAA.org is not "HIPAA's Web site." While HIPAA.org is a useful site, it is run by Claredi, a company that specializes in healthcare transactions testing. HIPAA was written by the Department of Health & Human Services - the Privacy Rule is enforced by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the rest of the rules (Security, Transactions & Code Sets, etc.) are enforced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Their websites are the ones the public should be encouraged to check out: * OCR - http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/ * CMS - http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/
First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.
Today's Stories
Advertisement