HIPAA Blog

[ Tuesday, September 27, 2011 ]

 

Proactively Protecting PHI: Here's an interesting article by M. Eric Johnson of Dartmouth on the greater risks to data in healthcare. Keep in mind that a lot of it is more scare story than tragedy -- very few of the millions of breaches have resulted in any damage to any patient, financial or otherwise. Also keep in mind that while medical information may be incredibly sensitive, much isn't (people discuss their health issues with friends, coworkers, and complete strangers all the time), and the loss of it is neither profitable to the recipient or damaging to the victim. Finally, keep in mind that the healthcare industry requires the exchange of that information, and efforts to restrict its accessibility, while reasonable to increase security, can literally kill someone. Making sure the data is accessible to those who need it when they need it, and inaccessible to others, requires balancing. It's a much different story than other industries, and head-to-head comparisons aren't always apt.

Just sayin'.

Jeff [10:09 AM]

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