The American Health Information Management Association has unveiled a new Health Information Bill of Rights designed to promote privacy protections for personal health information, Modern Healthcare reports (Carlson, Modern Healthcare, 10/5).
AHIMA's seven-point platform advocates patients' right to:
- Access health information during treatment;
- Access personal health information at no cost;
- Expect adequate health data privacy and security protections in all geographic regions;
- Expect health care providers to be held accountable for data security breaches;
- Expect health information to be as accurate and complete as possible;
- Know who accesses, adds and updates personal health data; and
- Seek legal action if a health data security breach causes harm.
In November, AHIMA plans to offer health care providers a certification declaring that the organization agrees to uphold the bill of rights. AHIMA also plans to release a wall poster for physician practices to hang in waiting areas (Goedert, Health Data Management, 10/5).