Privacy Concerns About Personal Health Records Increase, as Interest in PHRs Grows
Recent developments to online personal health records have raised their value, but also have increased the risk of patient privacy violations, the Washington Post reports. Microsoft and Google have recently released PHRs that combine the service with search engines and other offerings.
According to the Post, as PHR "sites grow in number and sophistication," supporters of patient privacy rights "are stepping up their warnings, especially about PHRs offered by health insurers." Deborah Peel, founder of Patient Privacy Rights and a Texas-based psychiatrist, said, "There are many, many pitfalls about personal health records," adding, "Giving more information about yourself to your health insurer is probably the worst possible thing to do." Peel said many companies that offer PHR services share the data with third-party firms that collect the information before reselling it to insurers and other interested parties.
Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said that an employee of an online PHR service provider could have access and steal private patient data and sell it to insurers or employers despite the presence of privacy policies or security measures. "I think it is unrealistic to be comfortable or feel secure about the privacy of things that are on the Internet," Wolfe said.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which includes patient privacy protections, does not cover medical records placed online, the Post reports. In addition, legal issues related to online information and privacy have yet to be addressed by the federal courts, prompting experts to urge online PHR users to monitor their service providers' privacy policy closely, according to the Post.
However, others believe that the benefits of online PHRs are more significant and the risks tied to them have been overstated. Gary Marchioni, a University of North Carolina researcher, said, "I think (people's assessment) depends on their level of paranoia. It still sort of boils down to how much trust you have in the world."
Later this year, Patient Privacy Rights expects to release privacy and security policy ratings of several online PHR services, the Post reports (Gerber, Washington Post, 3/11).
