Medical records rights and privacy issues: Impact and implications of health information technology

As we move rapidly toward the electronic exchange of information and the creation of a national health infrastructure, it is crucial that the privacy of health information not be compromised in the interest of expediency. Privacy protections must ensure that standards for disclosing health information are in place for everyone who receives or creates identifiable health information. federeal law should also ensure that those who improperly obtain and disclose health information are subject to civil and criminal penalties. This presentation will discuss whether, and how, such a system will be able to accomodate the various legal rectrictions on disclosing what is generally considered to be potentially sensitive information.