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Protecting Data in the Event of a Breach
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $19 billion investment in health information technology is crucial to improving U.S. health care quality and value, as explained in a CAP report released earlier this week. But in addition to creating a business case for an improved health IT infrastructure, success depends upon patients’ trust for the system’s security.
To ensure that good security policy protects health records, the Center for American Progress submitted comments regarding national guidelines for dealing with potential data breaches to the Department of Health and Human Services. Senior Fellow Peter Swire explains their importance: “Large, unnecessary data breaches could undermine confidence in health care privacy and security. The new data breach guidelines, therefore, are a crucial way to reduce the number of breaches and build privacy and security effectively into the new health IT infrastructure.”
These guidelines are essential now that health care providers and insurers are responsible for notifying individuals if their personal medical data are at risk, he also explains. The recommendations cover encryption, the utility of one-way hash functions, and urge caution with regard to considering biometrics for data protection. Details and the full comments are available here.
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