Heath Records Banks Get Guidance

HDM Breaking News, February 28, 2008

To help ensure the credibility of emerging health records banks, the Arlington, Va.-based Health Records Banking Alliance has created a series of 12 principles they should follow.

Health records banks serve as a custodian for health care information, with the consumer controlling what data is stored in the bank and who can access it.

“Health records banks have a simplifying, organizing principle that puts the consumer at the front of the action,” said Richard Marks, president of Patient Command Inc., a Web-based records bank vendor. “But trust is essential for health record banking.” Marks, a member of the alliance, spoke Feb. 27 in an educational session at the 2008 HIMSS Convention in Orlando.

The alliance’s principles spell out how health records banks should act in regards to various issues, including privacy and confidentiality of health data; consumer control of content; ownership of information; authorizing others access; timeliness of data access; consumer control of use; leveraging data value; transparency; auditing; errors; disclosures; and neutrality toward vendors.

The alliance doesn’t seek to spell out how records banks should be run or funded, Jones said. But it does plan to embellish its 12 original principles and add implementation guides for them, he added.

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