Electronic health information exchange promises an array of potential benefits for individuals and the U.S. healthcare system through improved clinical care and reduced costs. At the same time, this environment also poses new challenges and opportunities for protecting individually identifiable health information. In healthcare, accurate and complete information about individuals is critical to providing high quality, coordinated care. If individuals and other participants in a network lack trust in the electronic exchange of information due to perceived or actual risks to individually identifiable health information, or the accuracy and completeness of such information, it may affect their willingness to disclose necessary health information and could have life-threatening consequences. Coordinated attention at the Federal and State levels is needed both to develop and implement appropriate privacy and security policies. Only by engaging all stakeholders, particularly consumers, can health information be protected and electronically exchanged in a manner that respects variations in individuals’ views on privacy and access.
– Source: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/
