report: health info. and managed care

[Peter Marshall <techdiff@ix.netcom.com>]

                       JAMA

                       Health Agencies Update - January 20, 1999
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                       Patient Privacy Worries

                       Patient fears that personal health information
                       will not be protected pose a serious threat to
                       health care, according to a recent report by
                       the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
                       Healthcare Organizations and the
                       National Committee for Quality Assurance
                       (NCQA).

                       The report, Protecting Personal Health
                       Information: A Framework for Meeting the
                       Challenges in a Managed Care Environment,
                       warns that patients who are worried about the
                       privacy of sensitive personal and medical
                       information may withhold information from
                       health care professionals, increasing the risk
                       of misdiagnosis and inadequate or
                       inappropriate treatment. The two groups, which
                       will consider adding new accreditation
                       requirements to encourage managed care and
                       provider organizations to improve
                       confidentiality measures, also urge the health
                       care community and policymakers to adopt a
                       series of privacy safeguards.

                       Such measures include ensuring accountability
                       by conducting periodic audits, enacting
                       federal and state legislation to assure
                       protecting the confidentiality of  health
                       information, educating patients about recorded
                       health information, and using technology (such
                       as encryption of data and detailed user access
                       controls) to protect information systems used
                       by managed care organizations.

                       [....]

                       The report is...available on the Joint
                       Commission and NCQA Web sites (www.jcaho.org
                       or www.ncqa.org).


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