The annual eHealth Initiative survey that looks at the state and sustainability of health information exchanges (HIEs) found that of the 161 responding HIEs, many believe potential stakeholders still remain apprehensive about privacy and security.
According to the eHealth Initiative, 104 respondents thought “stakeholder concerns about privacy and confidentiality issues were a moderate or substantial challenge.” The results reveal that HIE patients and connected providers could avoid HIE membership as a result of electronic protected health information (ePHI) privacy and security concerns. In turn, eHealth Initiative advises that these organizations “build a technical infrastructure and create a framework of governance and policies that clearly establishes the value of participation and allays concerns for all stakeholders.”
Furthermore, eHealth Initiative believes that HIEs try to concentrate on what providers can gain from membership, such as improved patient access and more up-to-date information, instead of focusing on stakeholder security fears. It’s not easy to balance these issues for an HIE because there’s in state competition among the HIEs themselves, vendors and other stakeholders. However, the survey data indicates that HIE security shouldn’t be brushed to the side, as those 104 respondents could be losing out on membership because of these security queries.
Data collected from all initiatives showed that the number of HIEs reporting stakeholder concerns about privacy and confidentiality issues, HIPAA and others, as being their biggest challenge decreased from 2011 (127) to 2012 (104). There were also 88 “advanced” HIE initiatives, which are HIEs that have reached the operating, sustaining, or innovating phases (5, 6, or 7) of development. And 50 of those maintained that stakeholder privacy and security issues are their biggest challenges in 2012. The comparison between the two groups proves that advanced initiatives may have a disadvantage when it comes to technical barriers, but could have a leg up on privacy and security.
When comparing the challenges faced by advanced initiatives with those reported above by all HIEs in 2012, a similar ranking is observed with some minor differences. Results indicate that as initiatives mature into advanced stages, technical barriers and concerns about competitive position become more significant challenges. On the other hand, responses from advanced initiatives indicate that they may be better equipped to alleviate concerns about privacy and confidentiality, lack of funding, and addressing government policy.
Everyone involved in HIE programs understands how important it is to ensure customers are comfortable with the level of data security within the network. The most significant security takeaway from the survey should be the proposition to not only build a secure technical infrastructure, but augment administrative safeguards by establishing individual security policies and procedures.