"The HIPAA Privacy Rule is necessary to protect sensitive personal medical information," said Myrl Weinberg, NHC President. "However, the rule sets burdensome requirements that can delay essential research and do little to nothing to protect the security or privacy of patient records."

The Privacy Rule defines and limits the circumstances where protected health information may be used or disclosed. However, after learning about how

their personal health records can and cannot be used under the Privacy Rule, people who participated in the NHC focus groups unanimously agreed that the regulation needs to be changed in order to promote medical research.

"Adding insult to injury, patients were shocked to learn that while a detailed authorization process must be followed before their medical records may be used in records-based research, no authorization is required if their records are used by the provider or care facility for their own marketing purposes," explained Weinberg. "The first step is to bring this complex problem to the attention of the patient community," she added, "and then stakeholders - including patients - need to reach a consensus on how to address it."

To read the report findings and methodology, go to http://ow.ly/bp5Dd.

Source:  National Health Council