Privacy and Security Law Blog

Posted by Brian Bennett

The Chairperson of the House Federal Workforce subcommittee, Jon C. Porter, is proposing legislation to promote the use of electronic health records in the federal employee health insurance program. Health information technology is viewed by many health professionals as an important step towards the availability of accurate and complete patient information, and ultimately cost-effective treatment of patients. Privacy advocates are concerned about threats to patient privacy posed by a national electronic health records system. Congressman Porter says that he would expect electronic medical records to be at least as safe as transactions involving financial information, which may not be much comfort to federal employees given the spate of recent data breaches.