Joseph Conn reports: Providers, electronic health-record developers and health information exchange operators are still waiting for new regulations or guidance on electronically handling highly sensitive behavioral health information. A year ago, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration held a national listening session on possibly updating its rule that protects patients of federally funded drug- and…
Category: Healthcare
In the NFL, helmet sensors are a sensitive issue
Brett Martel of AP reports: When big-money NFL careers are at stake, the use of impact-measuring sensors in football helmets isn’t as routine as one might expect. The NFL Players Association’s Mackey-White Committee, which spearheads player safety initiatives, spent considerable time discussing not only the potential health benefits of helmet sensors, but also the legal…
Draft House Cures Legislation Would Amend Federal Privacy Laws (Third Post in a Series)
Anna Kraus and Paige Jennings write: As we discussed in two prior posts (here and here), the April 29, 2015, draft House 21st Century Cures bill would make several changes to federal health privacy law. This post focuses on provisions that would relax limitations on payment for PHI disclosed for research purposes and that would expand the…
Microbiomes raise privacy concerns
Ellen Callaway reports: Call it a ‘gut print’. The collective DNA of the microbes that colonize a human body can uniquely identify someone, researchers have found, raising privacy issues. The finding1, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 11 May, suggests that it might be possible to identify a participant in an anonymous study of…