While many national provider and payer organizations oppose the final medical privacy rule and want major changes, those who would implement it overwhelmingly support the rule, as is, according to a new survey. HIPAAdvisory.com offered the survey on its Web site for two weeks this month and received 517 responses. HIPAAdvisory is an Internet-based information service from Phoenix Health Systems, a Gaithersburg, Md.-based consulting firm. Responses came from senior managers, CIOs, department managers, compliance and security managers, physicians and other professionals. Some 51% of responses came from provider organizations, with the rest from payers, claims clearinghouses and vendors.
In general, responses were uniform regardless of the organization respondents worked for, with two exceptions. While 75% of hospital respondents support the privacy rule's consent and authorization procedures, 74% of payer respondents want the procedures removed. Also, 84% of all provider respondents support the provision that would give patients the right to access their medical records, while 71% of vendor respondents want that provision removed.
Two provisions in the final rule received a minority percentage of support from survey respondents. Only 34% of all respondents support the provision that would permit the use of limited patient information for fundraising purposes without patient authorization. And, 49% of all respondents support the provision that would make covered entities responsible for business associate violations if they were aware of the violations and did not take reasonable steps to address them.
All respondents, however, supported other provisions--often by large margins. These provisions would limit the use and disclosure of patient data, require patient consent to use their information, give patients the right to access their medical records and to receive an accounting of disclosures, and require covered entities to have written contracts with business associates. The survey results are available at www.hipaadvisory.com/action/privacy/rulesurvey.htm.
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