Privacy

Your Health Information Is Protected
 
Privacy and security safeguards are in place to protect your paper and electronic health information.
  • The same privacy protections that apply to your paper records also apply to your electronic health records (EHRs).  The Health Insurance altPortability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, a federal law, requires your health care providers and health plans to give you a Notice of Privacy Practices to inform you how your information may be used and shared, as well as how you can exercise your rights under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.  These rights include the right to see or get a copy of your health records.
  • With electronic health records, the HIPAA Security Rule, a federal law, sets national standards to ensure that your health information in electronic form is secure.  These standards include access controls, like tracking who accesses your health informatin and password protection.
  • EHRs have an "audit trail" feature which generally records who accessed your information, what changes were made and when.

Source: http://healthit.hhs.gov

For more information about federal legal protections, technical safeguards and measures you can take to protect your health information, please visit the Privacy/Security section of the Putting the I in HealthIT website.