By Melinda Beck
The Wall Street Journal
Originally published May 1, 2013
The sharing of Americans' health information is set to explode in coming years, with millions of patients' medical records converted to electronic form and analyzed by health-care providers, insurers, regulators and researchers.
That has prompted concerns over privacy—and now, new federal rules that aim to give patients more control over their information are posing technical and administrative problems for the doctors and hospitals that have to implement them.
Information-technology experts say the challenges illustrate how difficult it may be to protect sensitive patient information as digitization of the health-care industry expands.
"The reality is, our ability to exchange electronic information is already well beyond our ability to control it," says John Leipold, CEO of Valley Hope Technology in Norton, Kan., which makes electronic record systems for behavioral-health providers.
The new rules are part of a revision of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. They went into effect in March, but providers have until Sept. 23 to comply.
One key new provision requires doctors and hospitals not to disclose medical information to a patient's insurer if the patient requests it and pays for the services out-of-pocket. The information can be noted in the patient's medical file, but stopping it being revealed to insurers inadvertently may be difficult, some health-care providers say.
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