Federal Contract Granted to Address Privacy and Security of Electronic Health Records
Posted by Peerapong Tantamjarik
An article today in the Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger reported that the state of Mississippi would receive a federal contract to implement the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC). HISPC is a national effort consisting of a multi-disciplinary team of experts and the National Governor's Association (NGA). The HISPC's goal is to work with approximately 40 states or territorial governments to assess and develop plans to address variations in organization-level business policies and state laws that affect privacy and security practices which may pose challenges to interoperable health information exchange.
It makes sense that this effort would take place in Mississippi, one of the states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina last year. That disaster highlighted the importance of maintaining personal medical records in an electronic format since many paper records had been lost with the hurricane. Unlike paper records, electronic health records may be stored at many different sites at the same time, and remote from any disaster areas. But advancements in health technology, leading to different avenues for data sharing, inevitably raise concerns about the privacy and security of patients' medical records. As part of the contract, the HISPC will address privacy and security issues in business policy, regulations, and state laws that pose challenges to the secure sharing of electronic health information to authorized entities. For those interested, it would be wise to keep up to date with the efforts of HISPC in Mississippi and other states to come since it will likely have influence over any national legislation on the topic.