From: InformationWeek/HealthCare
Now that the Department of Health and Human Services has ruled that consumers can get their medical test results, labs’ IT departments must give security and privacy top priority.
Now that patients are legally entitled to their medical results from the lab, these laboratories must take further steps to ensure data doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
The Department of Health and Human Services last week made its final rule on the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988, giving patients (or their authorized representatives) the right to access their information. The move is designed to give patients more control over their healthcare choices, empower them to more easily adhere to treatment options, and let them track their health progress, said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a statement.
HHS estimates 22,861 laboratories will have to spend between $2 million and $10 million among them to develop processes and interoperability systems that enable them to conform with the rule, according to published reports. Most large lab chains and hospital labs can handle these requests already, but smaller facilities could have challenges, experts say. Each year, labs could field between 175,000 and 3.5 million requests from patients, their designees, and personal representatives, HHS predicts. However, doctors will still receive lab results first; the new rule gives labs up to 30 days to comply with a patient’s request.
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