HIPAA Regulatory Alert
Few privacy complaints are investigated further
Analysis raises more questions than it answers
The Department of Health and Human Services found that less than 25% of the total medical privacy complaints lodged with the agency merited further federal investigation of the health care organizations involved, according to an analysis of HHS' Office of Civil Rights (OCR) statistics by Melamedia LLC President Dennis Melamed.
Of the 22,664 complaints received by OCR between April 2003, when the complaint system started, and September 30, 2006, some 5,400 (23.8%) were given further investigation or action, according to agency statistics.
Of the 5,400 complaints that were pursued, OCR took informal action in 3,700 cases, while it found that in the remaining 1,700, the health care organization named in the complaint had not violated the HIPAA privacy rule.
"These statistics raise a lot more questions than they answer," Melamed says. "For example, does this mean that concerns over medical privacy are overblown? Or does it mean that the HIPAA privacy rule doesn't cover everyone it should? Or does it mean that the country got lucky and that the health care community has been protecting patient confidentiality but just didn't have a way to prove it until HIPAA came along? We just don't know."
While Melamed cautions against reading too much into the statistics, he says they do indicate that we still don't have a grasp on how well we protect patient confidentiality. "And that, by itself, is important to know as the United States pursues a national system of electronic health records and personal health records," he says.
Saying OCR understood the statistics would raise more questions than they answer, Melamed praised the agency for issuing its report, saying it is a "step in the right direction in helping policy makers and citizens understand some of the strengths and weaknesses in the systems the government has created to protect patient confidentiality."
More information is available at http://www.melamedia.com.
The Department of Health and Human Services found that less than 25% of the total medical privacy complaints lodged with the agency merited further federal investigation of the health care organizations involved.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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