AHIMA floats privacy 'bill of rights'

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is looking to bridge what it sees as a yawning gap in health privacy protections with a seven-point bill of rights it hopes will push the healthcare industry to a "major paradigm shift" in patient privacy practices. The bill is necessary because of "repeated abuses of access, accuracy, privacy and security of the most basic rights of individuals,' said Vera Rulon, AHIMA's president. The AHIMA's principles include: 1) The right to access your health information free of charge, 2) The right to access your health information during the course of treatment, 3) The right to expect that your health information is accurate and as complete as possible, 4) The right for you or your personal representative(s) to know who provides, accesses, and updates your health information, except as precluded by law or regulation, 5) The right to expect healthcare professionals and others with lawful access to your health information to be held accountable for violations of all privacy and security laws, policies, and procedures, including the sharing of user IDs and passwords, 6) The right to expect equivalent health information privacy and security protections to be available to all healthcare consumers regardless of state or geographic boundaries or the location (jurisdiction) of where the treatment occurs, 7) The right to the opportunity for private legal recourse in the event of a breach of one's health information that causes harm.