Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | June 2, 2016
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a HIPAA fact sheet earlier this year reinforcing patients’ right to access their health information and clarifying, among other things, that patients may be charged only limited fees for copies of their health information. Many people are not fully aware of their right to access their own medical records under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), including the right to access an electronic copy when their health information is stored electronically.
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Thomas A. Mason | June 2, 2016
Clinicians and other health care providers practice medicine with the noble goal of improving patient outcomes. The day-to-day considerations in treating patients are complex, which is where technology can be leveraged to streamline and better inform the patient-provider interaction.
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Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | January 11, 2016
In order to effectively manage their health, individuals need to be able to access and use their health information when, where, and how they want, including sending it to the people and tools helping them become or stay healthy – neighbors, friends, relatives, health care providers who are treating or consulting with the individual, or even third-party software tools used for self-management. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) governs the privacy of individuals’ protected health information (PHI) and when and how that information can be shared.
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Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | October 1, 2015
Today, ONC joins hundreds of providers, consumers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and federal and private sector partners to celebrate advancements in consumer engagement through health IT at its premier consumer event: the Fifth Annual Consumer Health IT Summit (#consumersummit15). We have a lot of success to celebrate, a lot of exciting developments to share with one another, and yes, -a lot of work still to do.
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Michael Wittie | January 6, 2015
Data rests at the heart of health IT’s capacity to help improve care quality and health outcomes: standards-based, interoperable electronic systems make it possible to access, share, use and re-use information that was once locked in paper charts kept by individual providers. As more and more consumers engage and adopt mobile health technologies to help them better track their daily health and wellbeing, it will be increasingly important to consider how those data can flow seamlessly from consumers to providers – and back – to help everyone achieve better health.
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